Let's keep this brief, because I know more than a few colleagues of mine who are staunch defenders of John Carter, despite overwhelming reviews saying the film sucks major ass and cost Disney a fortune. There's simply no further need to pile on the flick, or its beleaguered director, Andrew Stanton. Of course, somebody forgot to tell Disney that, because today they've released a statement that is essentially a great big middle finger to the film and everybody who worked on this expensive disaster, stating they expect to lose some serious cash on this failed venture. Here is Disney's press release....
“In light of the theatrical performance of John Carter ($184 million global box office), we expect the film to generate an operating loss of approximately $200 million during our second fiscal quarter ending March 31. As a result, our current expectation is that the Studio segment will have an operating loss of between $80 and $120 million for the second quarter. As we look forward to the second half of the year, we are excited about the upcoming releases of The Avengers and Brave, which we believe have tremendous potential to drive value for the Studio and the rest of the company.”
I love that last little jab there at the end, "Oh yeah, we got a bunch of other movies that might actually see the light of profit shine down upon them, not like that John Carter thing that decimated an entire fiscal quarter for us".
As I've said before, someone's head is going to roll over this, and this statement is more evidence to that fact. Unfortunately it may be Andrew Stanton, a Pixar vet who has spearheaded some of the greatest animated works of the last decade. You can probably also drive a stake into the heart of ever seeing that John Carter sequel based on The Gods of Mars. It's not happenin', not without a serious overhaul in the budget and definitely somebody new behind the camera. Taylor Kitsch? Eh, he might be safe for continuity's sake, but don't count on it.
