What’s this? John Carter may turn out to be a flop?
According to a recent report from Deadline, Disney’s $250 million dollar gamble may end up being the biggest write-off of all time! Early tracking numbers are out and apparently they are not good. “2 unaided, 53 aware, 27 definitely interested, 3 first choice,” a senior exec at a rival studio told Deadline.
He went onto say:
”It just came out. Women of all ages have flat out rejected the film. The tracking for John Carter is shocking for a film that cost over $250 million. This could be the biggest write-off of all time.”
While Disney is probably starting to worry, they say that there’s still time and they will continue to support the film.
”We know that we have a long way to go. It’s still four weeks out, and the bulk of the media hasn’t hit yet. Our Super Bowl ad did what we intended it to do: have a pop of awareness. On Sunday we launch a full campaign with 90+% of all of our media ready to go.”
As Deadline points out though, John Carter only has a two week head start on The Hunger Games, which is a big issue considering The Hunger Games is going to be huge, and I mean Twilight huge.
Personally, I’m excited for the film but I do see why Disney may be nervous. $250 million is a ton of money to spend on a film that features a relatively unknown actor and is based on only somewhat well known source material.
Plus, the whole sci-fi theme may make it a hard sell as well. Oh and then there’s the competition that it will face from The Hunger Games.
See my point now? Disney has every right to be nervous.
Published: Feb 17, 2012 07:53 pm