The Untold Story of Disney’s $307 Million Bomb ‘John Carter': ‘It’s a Disaster’

Photo illustration by TheWrap (Disney)

Ten years ago, Disney’s “John Carter” opened nationwide.

Meant to be a potential franchise-starting blockbuster, it was savaged by critics, who called the film “wanly plodding and routine” (Entertainment Weekly), and “a giant, suffocating doughy feast of boredom” (The Guardian), and was met with indifference by general audiences, who simply didn’t show up. (It opened in second place, behind forgotten animated Dr. Seuss adaptation “The Lorax”).

Quickly, the movie and its fate took on a nearly mythical dimension – it wasn’t just a box office disappointment, it was a staggering creative and commercial failure, the kind of movie that is often mentioned in the same breath as other high-profile misfires like “Ishtar” or “Waterworld.”

But the actual story of “John Carter” – how it was conceived, what happened during production, and how it all fell apart thanks largely to a misguided marketing campaign – is much more complex and much more interesting.

Most Hollywood bombs are perceivable early on, through a toxic combination of untested filmmakers, iffy (or unfinished) screenplays and unfortunate miscasting, leading to a troubled production that eventually equals an underwhelming film. In the 2006 documentary “Boffo! Tinseltown’s Bombs and Blockbusters,” Morgan Freeman equates the making of a cinematic debacle to an airline crash: “It’s usually caused by a series of mishaps.”