Plan B Forum

John Carter flop to cost Walt Disney $200m

Walt Disney has said it expects to lose $200m (£126m) on its movie John Carter, making it one of the biggest flops in cinema history.

The film, about a military captain transported to Mars, could result in an $80-120m loss for Disney's movie business during the current quarter.

Disney shares were down almost 1% in early trading in New York.



The firm is still likely to make a substantial quarterly profit, though, thanks to its TV businesses.

It is estimated that John Carter cost $250m to make and it is likely that Disney spent another $100m on marketing.

Reviewing the film on BBC 5 Live, Mark Kermode said: "The story telling is incomprehensible, the characterisation is ludicrous, the story is two and a quarter hours long and it's a boring, boring, boring two and a quarter hours long."

The film's director, Pixar's Andrew Stanton, had previously had great success with films such as Finding Nemo and Wall-E.

The John Carter film is based on a series of books written by the author of Tarzan, Edgar Rice Burroughs.

The series began with A Princess of Mars in 1912 and ended with John Carter of Mars, published after the author's death in 1964.

The film has taken no more than $184m at box offices worldwide, with cinema owners receiving about half of that total.

It is difficult to compare losses on films, as studios reveal little financial detail and allowances have to be made for inflation.

The Hollywood Reporter says that last year's biggest flop was Mars Needs Moms, which cost $150m to make and only took $39m at the box office.

Disney will be hoping for success from other big budget movies due for release later this year.

The list includes The Avengers, due to be released in May, and Brave, set to be released by Disney Pixar in June.


http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-17442200

Hello, Disney? We know there aren't huge white apes on Mars, nor any sub Tarzan style heroes. Did you really expect people to buy in? Pandora was at least tenable.

I could ignore all of this:

The story telling is incomprehensible, the characterisation is ludicrous, the story is two and a quarter hours long

because, after all, exactly the same thing can be said about The Magic Flute, which is nevertheless an artistic masterpiece. But this:

it's a boring, boring, boring two and a quarter hours long.

is unforgivable.

The international sales will make it all up. Those foreigners have the absolutely worst taste in everything. Kenny Rogers is HUGE internationally. Go figure.

yrs,
rubato

Is it just me?

In this case no, it wasn't just you, the movie truly sucked, but when it comes to giving bad reviews to movies, in your case it's always appropriate for Stroppy "The Godfather was shite" Gob to ask that question....

Gob, you didn't like "The Godfather"?

Wattsamattu?

It was a yawnfest, stereotypic cardboard cutout characters, and a slow plot....

If one is used to post-century CGI fx gore-fest the plot might seem a trifle slow.

The "cardbaord characters" criticism leaves me amiss. There was enough character development in the film (even more in the sequels) to flesh out the main characters and even some of the incidental ones.

Oh well, TEHO.

It was a Greek or Shakespearean Tragedy set in early and mid-20th century America...

stereotypic cardboard cutout timeless archetypal characters, and a slow plot an epic sweep....

Fixed that for you...

Lord Jim wrote:It was a Greek or Shakespearean Tragedy set in early and mid-20th century America...

yeah, like I say, unoriginal

rubato wrote:The international sales will make it all up. Those foreigners have the absolutely worst taste in everything. Kenny Rogers is HUGE internationally. Go figure.

yrs,
rubato

Oh dear, retard is back to making himself look stupid again.

Kenny Rogers is huge in the US, other places, not so much.

2010 American Eagle Award American Eagle Award
2009 ACM Honors Cliffie Stone Pioneer Award (w/ Jerry Reed, Randy Travis, Hank Williams Jr.)
2007 ASCAP Golden Note Award ASCAP Golden Note Award
2007 CMT Music Awards Album of the Year — Water & Bridges
2005 CMT Music Awards Favorite All Time Country Duet — "Islands In the Stream" (w/ Dolly Parton)
2004 CMT's 100 Greatest Cheating Songs "Ruby Don't Take Your Love to Town"- #6
2003 International Entertainment Buyers Association Lifetime Achievement Award
2003 CMT's 100 Greatest Country Songs "The Gambler" — #26
2002 CMT's 40 Greatest Men of Country Music Ranking — #19
2000 TNN Music Awards Career Achievement Award
1999 BBC's Greatest Country Singer Ranking — #2
1988 Grammy Awards Best Duo Country Vocal Performance — "Make No Mistake She's Mine" (w/ Ronnie Milsap)
1986 USA Today Favorite Singer of All Time
1985 American Music Awards Favorite Country Album — Eyes That See In the Dark
1985 American Music Awards Favorite Male Country Artist
1983 Academy of Country Music Awards Single of the Year — "Islands In the Stream" (w/ Dolly Parton)
1983 Academy of Country Music Awards Top Vocal Duet — (w/ Dolly Parton)
1983 American Music Awards Favorite Pop/Rock Country Artist
1983 American Music Awards Favorite Country Single — "Love Will Turn You Around"
1983 ASAP Awards Favorite Single — "Islands In the Stream" (w/ Dolly Parton)
1982 American Music Awards Favorite Country Album — Greatest Hits
1981 American Music Awards Favorite Pop/Rock Male Artist
1981 American Music Awards Favorite Country Album — The Gambler
1981 American Music Awards Favorite Country Single — "Coward of the County"
1980 American Music Awards Favorite Male Country Artist
1980 American Music Awards Favorite Country Album — The Gambler
1980 Music City News Country Single of the Year
1979 American Music Awards Favorite Male Country Artist
1979 American Music Awards Favorite Country Album — 10 Years of Gold
1979 Country Music Association Awards Male Vocalist of the Year
1979 Country Music Association Awards Vocal Duo of the Year — (w/ Dottie West)
1979 Country Music Association Awards Album of the Year — The Gambler
1979 Music City News Country Male Artist of the Year
1979 Music City News Country Single of the Year — "The Gambler"
1979 Grammy Awards Best Male Country Vocal Performance — "The Gambler"
1978 American Music Awards Favorite Single — "Lucille"
1978 Country Music Association Awards Vocal Duo of the Year — (w/ Dottie West)
1978 Academy of Country Music Awards Entertainer of the Year
1978 Academy of Country Music Awards Top Male Vocalist
1977 Country Music Association Awards Single of the Year — "Lucille"
1977 Academy of Country Music Awards Top Male Vocalist
1977 Academy of Country Music Awards Single of the Year — "Lucille"
1977 Academy of Country Music Awards Song of the Year — "Lucille"
1977 Grammy Awards Best Male Country Vocal Performance — "Lucille"

Rogers, voted the "Favorite Singer of All-Time" in a 1986 joint poll by readers of both USA Today and People.

Islands In The Stream was a great song. (Pretty much anything Dolly does is great, except 9 to 5.That was terrible.) I once had an absolutely terrific reggae version of the song, too.

Nine to five was a GREAT song!



Just for you Sue

I love that song, and the movie! One of my all-time favorite comedies.


Out West we work 8-5; lunch is not paid.

Okay, out of respect for you two and for Dolly, I listened to 9 to 5 again. Ugh! So much of her work has achieved true musical greatness, some reaching the sublime, that I can't believe this piece of dreck originated on the same planet. Here, take a listen to Little Sparrow:



And for good measure, here's Bettye Lavette's cover of it, too (which is teh awesome):

People traveling in Asia, Africa and the ME in the latter 1980s all said that EVERYWHERE THEY WENT in the cities people were selling Kenny Rogers and Dolly Parton cassettes (mostly bootlegged, no doubt).

yrs,
rubato

His Fried Chicken franchise is still going strong in Asia after failing in the US:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kenny_Rogers_Roasters

It's a post victorian Edgar Rice Burroughs work set to a modern tempo, what'd they expect?

rubato wrote:His Fried Chicken franchise is still going strong in Asia after failing in the US:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kenny_Rogers_Roasters

With a name like that it was never going to succeed in the UK...

Sean wrote:

rubato wrote:His Fried Chicken franchise is still going strong in Asia after failing in the US:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kenny_Rogers_Roasters

With a name like that it was never going to succeed in the UK...

In Britain they should have found something more suggestive of "industrial waste" like Marmite.

yrs,
rubato

So Britain ranks below Kenny rogers on Rubes shit-list.