After playing the role of Gambit in X-Men Origins: Wolverine, Taylor Kitsch went on to become the star of a big-budget Disney production. Kitsch was cast in the titular role in John Carter, a sci-fi epic based on Edgar Rice Burroughs’ John Carter of Mars. The film was planned as the beginning of a franchise like Star Wars or Avengers.
Disney invested a $264 million budget into the film and brought Oscar-winning director Andrew Stanton of WALL-E and Finding Nemo fame. However, the studio failed big time with the film as it incurred losses in the range of hundreds of millions of dollars.
Taylor Kitsch’s John Carter Failed Due To Disney’s Missteps
Taylor Kitsch was one of the up-and-coming actors in the industry in the early 2010s having acted in the role of Gambit in X-Men Origins: Wolverine. Disney believed that he was the ideal lead actor for John Carter, and his X-Men co-star Lynn Collins was cast opposite him. Despite decent performances from the cast, including Kitsch, the film became one of the colossal failures of Disney.
Andrew Stanton intended the film to be a trilogy, planning the sequels- Gods of Mars and Warlord of Mars. However, Disney canceled these plans after the box office performance of the first film. The film’s failure was attributed to several factors, most of which point fingers at the studio.
Disney did not make a wise choice when it moved forward with a brand that was not popular enough. Edgar Rice Burroughs’ The Barsoom series was released between 1912 and 1948 and did not become as iconic as his other creation, Tarzan. It had a selected fanbase, including Stanton.
Even though popular IPs like Star Wars and Avatar were heavily inspired by these stories, John Carter felt largely out of place in 2012. The studio was also pushing for the franchise model, which rarely worked with such an unpopular IP. The viewers couldn’t connect with a film whose sole purpose was to set up sequels.
The biggest problem was the exorbitant budget of the film. At a time when even the Marvel movies were limiting their budget to below $200 million, John Carter had a production budget of $264 million. According to Forbes, the film cost Disney $306.6 million to make, but it was brought down due to tax credits in the U.K.
The budget made it such that the film had to rake in at least $660 million to break even. However, the box office numbers of the film stood at $282.7 million (via The Numbers). The disastrous $30 million opening in the U.S. itself sealed the film’s fate and the studio lost at least $200 million in the film.
Sadly, the reviews for the film were not entirely bad and the film didn’t deserve to go down as one of the biggest flops ever. However, these numbers and facts show that Disney knew the risks before they jumped right in. The film has achieved a cult status in recent years.
John Carter Had One Of The Worst Marketing Campaigns In Movie History
The name John Carter gave no indication of what the movie’s genre or theme was. Interestingly, it was changed from A Princess on Mars to John Carter of Mars. Andrew Stanton later removed “of Mars” from the title, leaving the audience with the confusing name John Carter for an epic sci-fi film.
According to Vulture, the trailers of the film didn’t excite the fans. The use of Led Zeppelin’s song Kashmir in the trailer gave an unnecessary retro touch to the film. The reel put together for the film at D23 in 2011 was another disaster. Many film enthusiasts later felt that the film was almost dismissed as a failure at Disney before it hit the theaters (via The Washington Post).
Kitsch deserved better than what John Carter did to his career. Kitsch recently appeared alongside Chris Pratt in The Terminal List.
John Carter is now available for streaming on Disney+.
