10. John Carter
What's it about? Adapted Edgar Rice Burroughs' novel A Princess Of Mars, John Carter sees the titular hero transported to Mars after killing an alien creature known as a Thern. Before long he's caught up in a war for the future of the planet, becoming the outsider who has the power to tip the balance and bring an end to the devastating conflict. Why was it doomed to fail? With an astronomical budget of $280 million the odds were against John Carter being a success long before it hit the theatres. When Disney lifted the review embargo a week before its general release its fate was sealed: "mediocre", "derivative" and "unmemorable" summed up the scathing reviews of what many believed was a jumbled and incoherent space opera. Dropping the last two words from the original title, John Carter Of Mars, is often cited as one of the key reasons why the film's marketing failed to bring in the crowds. The book John Carter And The Gods Of Hollywood takes things further, suggesting that the film was unintentionally sabotaged by a marketing executive with virtually no track record who was clearly out of their element. Director Andrew Stanton's planned trilogy wasn't to be, but at least he's lit up the box office again recently with his latest Pixar animation, Inside Out.