John Carter To Get Creamed by... The Hunger Games?!?

February 16, 2012

Yo Fellow Film Lovers,

Remember the whole debate of “Why did they remove the ‘Of Mars’ from John Carter” when we saw the trailer? That may well turn out to be the least of Disney’s problems on this gargantuan film.  I am coming across very interesting reports that John Carter is rapidly turning into an absolute marketing disaster for Disney. Tracking reports, if you care for such things, are apparently indicating that ZERO percent of the polled femalegoing movie audience wants to see this film. Literally zero. They’re all apparently holding out for The Hunger Games two weeks later.

Even worse, however, is that apparently the tracking shows that less than 50% of men want to see the film! :O The removal of the ‘Of Mars’ has apparently made those aware of the property very wary of what Disney has done with this as a whole. Further, very few people, if anyone not known to be a Serial Diner, are even aware that Andrew Stanton is directing this. Disney is also pretty much lying about the film’s budget, claiming it is a “standard” $100 million blockbuster when in fact it may have well cost $250 million+.

Adding insult to injury, more men as well as women want to see The Hunger Games, which has gotten a far better marketing job by much smaller and heavily embattled Lionsgate which was fending a hostile takeover bid while having to market their film!  For example, Taylor Swift’s soundtrack contribution is already out and climbing the music charts raising awareness even though the film doesn’t open until March 23^rd. Needless to say, awareness is much higher.

One report I read says Disney is so scared of how badly this will do that it is possible that the writeoff they will have to take if it bombs – and it is almost guaranteed now that it will -- will negate any and all domestic profits from the forthcoming The Avengers when you take in all the financial reports for the entire 2012 financial year into consideration.

The female marketing exec in charge of Disney while all this was going on was named M.T. Carney. She previously had ZERO experience in movie marketing and apparently less with genre because it was her idea to drop the “Of Mars” from the title.  Her former job was as head of marketing for Ogilvy’s. This is who they put in charge of getting John Carter out there to the public? Needless to say, Disney has let her go. Why you would hire a cosmetics marketer to steer a male-oriented action film in the first place is beyond me.

So if you sci-fi loving, 3D surround sound hating luddite movie fans want to see John Carter, I suggest we see it fairly soon after opening because it’s gonna be gone very quickly, I imagine.