John Carter fans want a sequel. In fact, they’re demanding it. A Facebook group has sprung up that encourages people to let Disney know that there are fans out there and that they want a sequel.
The problem is, the film only pulled in $30 million on opening weekend against a budget of $250 million (and that’s a conservative estimate). To be fair, the international gross was $70 million but still, it will be very surprising if the studio ends up turning a profit on the movie.
Director Andrew Stanton has started planning a sequel but the mouse house isn’t on board yet. And really, it will all come down to how well John Carter does at the box office. It was supposed to be a tentpole and a franchise starter for the studio but it looks like that may have been too much to hope for.
THR has a great article on the failure of John Carter and Disney as a whole, if you want some further reading material. To put it bluntly though, I think that the studio is definitely to blame for the failure of the film. I’m not saying that Stanton and crew should get away clean, but it was more Disney who dropped the ball on this one.
That being said, it’s still early and things can turn around. Who knows, we may end up getting another adventure for Mr. Carter. The film hasn’t done that poorly with reviewers and while the box office isn’t what the studio had hoped for, it’s not exactly horrid.
Only time will tell but if you want a sequel, make sure you spread the word about the film and get as many people in theatres as possible!