John Carter opened to an estimated $30.6 million from 3,749 locations. That's lower than practically any similar movie, beginning with those that came out around the same time of year. It was obviously way off from
300 ($70.9 million) and
Watchmen ($55.2 million)—what's more concerning, though, is that it was even a tad below
10,000 B.C. ($35.9 million) and
Battle: Los Angeles ($35.6 million), both of which were modest movies in comparison.
Among past Mouse House franchise attempts,
John Carter isn't looking so good either. Back in 2003, Disney's
Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl debuted to $46.6 million, or the equivalent of over $60 million.
Tron Legacy opened to $44 million in December, which is a month with notoriously low openings (the movie ultimately closed with four times as much, a fate that's unlikely for
John Carter). One
very minor bright spot is that the opening was slightly above that of
Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time ($30.1 million), but with 3D and IMAX surcharges
John Carter even lagged behind that dud in initial attendance.
Disney's marketing department has been beat up on pretty good for the lackluster
John Carter campaign, and to their credit the movie doesn't really lend itself to an easy sell. Still, making the movie is the responsibility of production, and selling the movie is the responsibility of marketing, and in that regard they clearly failed.
The movie is called
John Carter, but aside from the fact that he can jump far and looks good without a shirt on, what else did commercials really convey about the title character? Also, what was
John Carter doing in this desert landscape occupied by tall green men, aside from fighting giant furry white creatures? If the characters don't seem interesting, and the stakes are low (or poorly explained), it doesn't really matter how much money the movie cost or how many advertisements are run—audiences are just not going to show up.
For whatever reason, the marketing mainly ignored the movie's central romance, and as a result it paid dearly with women, who represented just 37 percent of the opening weekend audience. Crowds also skewed slightly older (59 percent over the age of 25), and they awarded the movie a solid "B+" CinemaScore. 3D presentations accounted for 64 percent of the gross, and included within that figure was a very high 16 percent from IMAX 3D showings.
