Taylor Kitsch’s $250 million movie, John Carter was an indelible mark on the actor’s and Disney’s 2012 history. However, the feature film quietly transpired over the decade that followed and gained an underground cult following in its own capacity, which the house of production and its intensive marketing couldn’t make it happen (through no fault of their own).
The Disney movie was an experiment, something that leveraged the Hollywood hunk’s growing fame and the company’s string of live-action projects; and sadly, the anticipation surrounding John Carter simply couldn’t keep pace with moviegoers’ expectations at the time.
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A retrospective look at the fall of John Carter
At a time when Disney Prince of Persia had just failed epically to score among the public, then-Pixar Disney chief John Lasseter was convinced that their Pixar prince, Andrew Stanton, was the mind behind WALL-E and The world of Nemo would deliver the next big hit adapting John Carter’s novels. Andrew Stanton, who happened to be a fan of the literary work of Edgar Rice Burroughs, had had the opportunity to bring to life his 30-year dream of a John Carter live action movie. The movie crash landed so hard that on December 5, 2012, the New York Times had to publish an article titled, “Taylor Kitsch had a really bad year.”
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Poor marketing and equally poor reviews are cut short John Carterat the box office and the film only managed to generate $30.6 million in domestic revenue in its opening weekend. The crowd of opportunities at Stanton Arsenal during the launch of the John Carter franchise was ultimately unable to put his extraordinary special effects skills to good use. Instead, it managed to only deliver a heavily CGI-influenced feature. Reports from around the time of the film’s launch blame the bland and unimpressive trailer which failed to move the masses along. The trailer for the sci-fi action-adventure film teased a film that featured neither sci-fi nor action.
At the time, the film’s star protagonist, Taylor Kitsch, joked, “there are things that I would have liked to see differently” and the studio’s head of marketing claimed, “It’s one of the worst marketing campaigns in movie history. It’s almost like they’re going out of their way to not pay attention to us. With all the drama associated with the film and 8 months of confusing marketing before its release, it’s no surprise that preparation for the film was undone by the actual release, starting with the very first trailer itself.
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Taylor Kitsch looks back on the Disney flop, John Carter
After a decade, The list of terminals actor, Taylor Kitsch reflects on the film which in itself spoke of the height of his fame and simultaneously marked his downfall. The actor recovered from the aftermath of John Carter and continued to regain momentum for success, but one would think the trip home was one of regret. In fact, kitsch developed alongside the evolution of John Carter and had the opportunity to watch the Disney movie that was once a huge flop gain momentum of its own.
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John Carter has now become a cult film, a comforting film for families and children on their Disney movie nights, and as the film becomes more and more popular with audiences, Taylor Kitsch couldn’t help but be proud .
“I learned an incredible amount about this film. I still have a great relationship with this film, which is saying a lot. I have no ill will, I learned a lot, man. And made great progress personally and professionally through that. It hurt, obviously, at the time, but in retrospect, I wouldn’t change a thing, to be honest. It is what it is, we all have those moments… It’s fun when people stop and talk about JC and their kids, they watch it with their kids and so on. That was why, you know, it was fun.
John Carter is available to stream on Disney+
Source: Screen Rant
