It's not often that a studio will come out and say how much money they're expecting to lose on a particular movie, but it seems Disney knows their losses on John Carter are going to be so big they need to tell investors in the hope of warding off future anger. As a result, the company has released a statement that essentially tells shareholders the film has single-handedly shoved the studio into the red for the next few months.
The statement reads: '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.'
It means there's more riding on The Avengers than there was before, as Disney needs that to be a success. While big budget movies are actually a relatively good bet as they generally make more money than they cost to produce, as John Carter shows, when it goes wrong, it can be slightly catastrophic. It's a particular shame with John Carter, as many dreadful mega-budget movie rake cash in, and this one has failed despite actually being quite good. (Source: Deadline)