Some franchises end with the first attempt. When Disney published a new blockbuster in 2012, he did not have the slightest chance at the box office. Despite the strong cast around Taylor Kitsch John Carter – Between two worlds Do not make a profit on the box office. On the contrary – the film is considered The biggest flop in cinema history. What happened?
John Carter flopped – but it was not due to the quality of the film
In October last year, Screen Rant published a list of 25 largest loss transactions on the box office of all time. John Carter ranks 1 of this list. The sci-fi epic has with $ 255 million made more loss than any other film.
He has a famous template: The film is based on a series of novels by Tarzan inventor Edgar Rice Burroughs, which was released from 1912 to 1941. The novels inspired many films, such as the Star Wars start of the stars of the stars and also Avatar – departure to Pandora.
In addition, the film was not even as negative as one would suspect in such a flop. With Rotten Tomatoes, the film has 52 % positive reviews and 60 % positive reviews of users. At Metacritic the film even receives one Rating of 7.0 Among the user: inside. At Moviepilot he receives a passable 6.3 out of 10.
Why did the sci-fi adventure flop?
It seems as if less the quality of the film itself is decisive for the flop, but something else. John Carter could come up with little new. As already said, the books have inspired many other films and the pictures did not seem particularly innovative and rather familiar. Even acting greats like Willem Dafoe and Mark Strong could not change the fact that the film was simply too uninteresting and looked too interchangeable to lure the masses to the cinema.
Actually, John Carter should only be the first part of a whole series. There were even plans for John Carter continuation. But the great ambitions of the studio were suffocated in the germ by the huge loss.
More sci-fi news:
Maybe there will be a new attempt at some point to revive John Carter. After all, Hollywood is not known to simply give up. Next time it may work With a revival of the pulp hero.