Last month I did a Tim’s Take on how I perceived Disney’s mishandling of John Carter as a lack of faith in the film. I attributed that, in part, to the fact that Carter was part of the Dick Cook era of Walt Disney Studios. Cook stepped down as Chairman in 2009 and Rich Ross stepped into his place. I surmised that Ross and his new regime could take a loss on Carter and still come out relatively unscathed. With Deadline’s report that Ross has now been removed at Disney, that notion is called into question. From Ross, himself:
“I believe in this extraordinary Walt Disney Studios team, and I believe in our strong slate of films and our ability to make and market them better than anyone else. But, I no longer believe the Chairman role is the right professional fit for me. For that reason, I have made the very difficult decision to step down as Chairman of The Walt Disney Studios, effective today.”
Ross words it as stepping down, but Deadline is quite clear that sources inside the Mouse House are saying he was fired. Today’s news is surprising, but a lot of reporting is going to surmise the studio’s mishandling of Carter at least factored in to the decision. Perception is that the film is one of the biggest box office disasters in the history of film. The truth is slightly different.
Carter’s worldwide take as of today is inching close to $270,000,000 – actually $20,000,000 more than the film’s reported budget (without factoring in the money they sunk into the apathetic marketing of the picture). So could it be that the perception of the film tanking is what motivated Disney to oust Ross? Or is it something else entirely? It’s possible that Disney just lost faith in Ross’ ability to release quality pictures. But it’s important to consider that three of the top-ten all-time highest grossing films* happened at Disney under Ross’s watch.
So what’s the real story here? This might be one to watch in the coming days and weeks as, even factoring in misfires like John Carter and Tron: Legacy, something’s not adding up yet. I get the feeling that the real story behind Ross’ brief tenure at Walt Disney Studios has yet to be told.
*Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides, Toy Story 3, and Alice in Wonderland
6 comments
The drab marketing campaign for John Carter was disappointing. A real head-scratcher. I’ll watch pretty much anything Pixar puts out, but the Disney brand isn’t doing it for me of late.
John Carter may have taken $270,000,000 dollars worldwide but nearly half of that is taken by the theatres. That’s why films need to make 3-4 times original budget to be considered worthwhile. John Carter costing $350 million to make indicates it needed to earn well over $700 million to be considered a genuine success.
forgive the lower case, my phone is being screwy.
anyway, theaters do not take half of the ticket price as profit. not even close. that is why concession items cost so much. that is where they make their profit, not with ticket sales. if they sell one sleeve worth of cups, it will pay for a whole box of them. that is how high the markup is.
now theaters do see a higher percentage off of ticket sales once the film has been out for two or three weeks……hence the fact that most coupons cannot be used on a new release that has been on screens for less than that. but still, even then it is not equal to fifty percent of the ticket price. only dollar theaters can manage such a feat.
And just to add to the confusion, overseas takings for the studio are less than domestic. That’s why studios put such a high premium on domestic business. But whichever way you frame it, John Carter was a stellar bomb.
I’m highly skeptical about the claim that Disney actually paid the “standard” marketing amount for John Carter. If so, they need to fire whoever was responsible for determining how that money was spent, because it was far and away the most anemic and half-assed marketing campaign I’d seen in years…especially for a sci-fi wannabe-blockbuster with the kind of lineage John Carter had.
By the same token, I’m never going to understand why someone along the line didn’t realize what a ridiculously terrible title just “John Carter” was, and force the change to something like, say, “John Carter and the Princess of Mars” which y’know…makes it sound like the pulpy adventure it was rather than a docu-drama about some dude named John that most people had never heard of.
Well if the budget without marketing was $250,000,000, then when you add in the marketing that brings it up to around $250,000,050, right?
Comments are shown as archived from the original site; new comments are closed.