10 Box Office Flops That Threw Away Stupid Amounts Of Money
5. John Carter - $108.6 million
Budget: $250 million Box Office: $282.8 million
If youre going to throw a quarter of a billion dollars at someone to make a tentpole picture based on risky (read: no fan base) material you could do a lot worse than the director of two of the biggest animated films of all time. Unfortunately for Andrew Stanton, his brush with the live-action blockbuster led him to run back to Pixar with his tail between his legs to needlessly sequalise another of their classics.
John Carter (originally Of Mars, but that was dropped because audiences dont like Mars but love bland names) tells the story of a civil war soldier magically transported to the red planet, where he develops superpowers. If that sounds a little archaic its because it is. Based off the Edgar Rice Burroughs novels from the early 20th Century, repurposed into a 2012 blockbuster makes the idea look derivative, but that's only due to the series subsequent influence. Disney ignored that in their marketing, however, instead presenting it as an Avatar rip-off.
John Carter wanted to be the new Star Wars, but in doing so betrayed the indie ideology that allowed it (or the first one at least) to end up such a hit. So in the end Disney went f**k it and just bought Star Wars instead.
Did it deserve to flop? Its surprising Stanton churned out something so generic, putting extra stock in the movie by committee idea, but that doesn't defend the film. As a non-franchise (hundred-year-old books dont count) movie its sad to see it turn out bad, but a film this messy doesn't deserve a profit.