10 Great Movie Ideas Let Down By Their Budget

Don't ever believe that Disney are untouchable in the forging of profitable franchises. Sometimes it goes 'John Carter wrong'.

Based on A Princess of Mars - the first of the Barsoom series of books by Edgar Rice Burroughs - the film saw John Carter, an American Civil War soldier who has been transported to Mars, trying to help the beings on the planet to get along.

The visual effects and cinematography on show in the finished article were impressive to say the least, it's just a shame that the same couldn't be said for the performance of the titular character.

Taylor Kitsch, not exactly a box office superstar at the time, didn't add much other than the occasional smoulder to the role and we were also subjected to a hammy villain in Mark Strong and a wasted all-star ensemble.

The story itself wasn't awful and the potential was there to push on with more outings, the problem was that this first showing of Disney's newest big name prospect didn't really do much to separate it from any sci-fi/fantasy film we'd seen before.

In offering up a paint by numbers movie - with no major draw - the films mammoth $306 million budget looked to have stifled any hope of pushing the boat out. Instead, Disney relied on safe storytelling and the hope that the fantastic visuals could get audiences through the cinema doors, thus making a new star in Kitsch.

John Carter went on to earn just $284.1 million at the box office, not even recouping Disney's sizeable influx of cash into the project.

File this one under missed opportunities.