John Carter at DHS

[fillerup]

Curious for any passholders who caught the John Carter screening at the studio this weekend - how was the event? Was it well handled, enjoyable, etc.?

We were supposed to go but I decided spending two hours in a crowd coughing up my bronchitis ravaged lungs would have been poor form.

And another question (not a suggestion) - would the John Carter environment make an adequate, or desirable, or even preferable substitute for Avatar at AK?

 

[neoshinok]

Hey I just finished writing about my screening this morning! (Being reviewed by mods, should post soon) To answer your question, I don't think the atmosphere in this film would be very entertaining as a theme park land. There are some beautiful indoor locations, but for the most part the landscape is dust and void of anything (as it takes place on Mars). However people may feel about the Avatar franchise being implimented, I don't think many would argue that the lush settings in the film would be a boring land to walk into

 

[neoshinok]

Guess it makes sense to just post here. To the mods: Sorry for the double post please delete the other thread.

First, I have to thank a user of this forum for posting this offering when it first became available. Without them there's now way I would've found out before tickets became unavailable.
I attended the 10:00AM screening of the film this morning at Hollywood Studios. (Side note: got a FastPass for TSM before entering, was able to hop right on after the movie! Timing couldn't have been better.)
I was impressed with their event coordination. I had never been into the Premiere Theatre before, the Hunchback show ended before I became a passholder. They collected tickets, checked ID's and had people seated quickly. There was a check-in table for recording devices (including cell phones) and I was surprised to see two people with metal detection wands as the last stage before seating. They're serious about piracy!
We were given custom Disney/John Carter RealD glasses to keep, and a nice goodie bag after the show. This included a John Carter mini-poster and a calendar. The calendar had a nice thank you letter for being passholders, as well as several concept art prints for old Disney films such as The Jungle Book and Lady and the Tramp.
We were shown a few previews for the new Disney Nature movie 'Chimpanzee', 'The Odd Life of Timothy Green' and Tim Burton's 'Frankenweenie'. The last segment before the film was a video from director Andrew Stanton expressing his gratitude and excitement for this movie.
On a technical note, I was blown away by their a/v system. The 3D was as good as I've seen, and the sound in particular was far beyond my expectation. Well done tech crew!
Now the film: I won't give anything away, as I feel the less you know going into the movie, the better. It has an unbelievable amount of gorgeous special effects, some great action beats, and some big laughs as well. I was impressed with the lead actor, who hadn't stood out to me in any previous roles. The movie also has some great surprise twists and a very satisfying ending. I would give it a solid 7/10 and that is coming from someone who is not traditionally a big sci-fi fan.
In conclusion, I think Disney made a brilliant marketing move with these screenings (unlike the trailers I've seen). I haven't stopped talking about this experience since this morning, so the goal of generating buzz around the movie has been attained at least from me!

 

[Tater48]

We went to the 6:00 screening and just got back. The event was very well put together and things ran extremely well. We really enjoyed this movie. The only negative for us was the volume. You couldn't hear yourself think in the theater. If you like the Star Wars movies, you are probably going to like this. As far as a John Carter land, I don't really think it would be feasible.

 

[menamechris]

The event went off smoothly. I wasn't thrilled with the movie - but I wasn't expected to be blown away either.

 

[graphite1326]

I just finished the book and can't wait to see the movie. I already saw one difference between the book and the movie from the trailor I saw

 

[topgun6566]

Movie was outstanding. Event was handled very well. Avatar would be a lot better as there are more elements of the movie they could do flesh out into ride opposed to John Carter.

 

[er221902]

I was completely impressed with this screening - I would have been happy with just being able to see a free movie as an AP, but Disney definitely didn't sacrifice quality just to put together a free screening. The 3D screen was clearer than those at DTD AMC, the sound was incredible - literally room-shaking, and we even received a few "small" gifts (a John Carter print, preview of the new Vinylmations to come, and super cool red 3D commemorative glasses). I would love to see more events like this added to the AP experience... so cool!

Oh, and the movie was AWESOME! I will definitely be seeing it again in theaters and will add it to my Blu-ray collection as soon as it's released.

 

[Florida_is_hot]

Thought I bump this thread, now it is out is there really anybody left that can tell me they thought it is good movie?

A movie worth some type of attraction?

Me I say no to both questions.......
I love fantasy and no this is not scifi (may have been 100 years ago but not now) but this movie I found dull and as lifeless as we today no Mars is.

 

[MarkTwain]

I saw it on Saturday and was blown away. IMO it was better than Avatar, and absolutely better than Alice in Wonderland. I would say it is about as good as the first Pirates, which is one of my favorite modern movies I've seen. To me it fully deserves to be on of the best-selling blockbusters of all time, which some would interpret to mean it deserves an attraction, although that isn't likely to happen for various reasons. I could see some potential problems in that it is probably one of the least family-friendly movies to be released under the Disney banner - lots of blood (albeit blue), stabbing, decayed corpses, etc - so Disney may not be eager to promote it in an attraction. Not that that stopped Pirates....

 

[Florida_is_hot]

Pirates?

There was nothing funny about this movie at all the actors if I am not mistaken are all unknowns and none have charisma or presence of Johnny Depp.

I actually like the Pirates of the Caribbean.

Avatar I did not like as much but it did have a few things Carter from Mars did not have.

It is true SciFi not Fantasy film.
It had better CGI, no giant salamanders that barked like dogs.
It actually had a story "Cowboys and Indians" all over again on an Alien Planet.

I am not going to summarize John Carter on Mars .... some people may want to see it but I seen no story.

The movie is not the worst film I seen but most people I watched with were not blown away.

Me if somebody likes Fantasy I say it is worth watching once, but I will not see it again or buy the DVD.

 

[captainkidd]

Haven't seen it, but I reckon Disney will want to part ways with the name John Carter in a hurry. The movie held a budget of about $250 million, plus $100 million for marketing. It made about $10 million on Friday, and is on track for only about $25 million for the weekend. This is gonna be a financial disaster for Disney, unless it picks up well internationally.

 

[wdwfan4ver]

Haven't seen it, but I reckon Disney will want to part ways with the name John Carter in a hurry. The movie held a budget of about $250 million, plus $100 million for marketing. It made about $10 million on Friday, and is on track for only about $25 million for the weekend. This is gonna be a financial disaster for Disney, unless it picks up well internationally.

John Carter already made $30,603,000 domestic and and an additional $70,600,000 in Foreign countries as of March 11th according to boxofficemojo.com.

 

[captainkidd]

John Carter already made $30,603,000 domestic and and an additional $70,600,000 in Foreign countries as of March 11th according to boxofficemojo.com.

Like I said, it's best shot is making money over seas. A $30 million domsetic opening for a film that has a production budget of over $250 million is not good at all. It opened to pretty much exactly what Prince Of Persia opened to 2 years ago, and that film only made $90 million total in the US. If you read on the link you posted:

Disney's mega-budget sci-fi spectacle John Carter opened to a middling $9.82 million on Friday, which is lower than almost all recent comparable movies. Its debut was a mere fraction of past March hits 300 ($28.1 million) and Watchmen ($24.5 million), and was also notably off from mid-range genre movies Battle: Los Angeles ($13.4 million) and 10,000 B.C. ($12.5 million). Compared to recent big-budget Disney movies, John Carter's opening was about half that of Tron Legacy ($17.5 million) and even a tad lower than Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time ($10.2 million).

Since it's only one day in, and there are rumblings of strong international numbers coming out of Russia and East Asia, it's premature to write John Carter's obituary. However, it now looks poised to finish the weekend with less than $30 million, which is a truly terrible start for any heavily-marketed sci-fi movie, much less one that cost a reported $250 million.

 

[captainkidd]

From The Hollywood Reporter:

Industry experts say Andrew Stanton's pricey $250 million spectacle will still be a substantial loss for Disney; "Dr. Seuss' The Lorax" easily beats "John Carter" in North America with $39.1 million.

Andrew Stanton's 3D sci-fi epic John Carter hit $30.6 million in its North American debut thanks to an uptick on Saturday, while the film opened internationally to $70.6 million for a total $101.2 million.

Disney is under no illusion about being out of the woods financially despite a slightly bettter-than-hoped for global performance. John Carter cost $250 million to produce plus a marketing spend that puts the total pricetag well north of $300 million and probably closer to $350 million.

At those levels, John Carter needs to earn as much as $600 million worldwide, an impossible benchmark to reach based on opening numbers. Box office observers are now comparing John Carter's potential to Disney's Prince of Persia, which earned $90.8 million domestically and $244 million internationally in 2010 (opinion is divided as to whether John Carter will do more than $200 million offshore).

In North America, John Carter was trounced by Universal and Illumination's Dr. Seuss' The Lorax, which earned a stellar $39.1 million in its second outing for a domestic cume of $122 million.

 

[Florida_is_hot]

Kind of sad, really.

Read the whole story.

About how it ballooned out of budget, a quarter of of billion dollars.
Due to expensive re-shoots.

A 1/4 billion dollar movie with unknown actors.

Alienates the geeks by cutting a 11 novel story to one movie.
Dropping Mars from the title because some brain trust said women would be offended.

 

[graphite1326]

Kind of sad, really.

Read the whole story.

About how it ballooned at of budget, a quarter of of billion dollars.
Due to expensive re-shoots.

A 1/4 dollar movie with unknown actors.

Alienates the geeks by cutting a 11 novel story to one movie.
Dropping Mars from the title because some brain trust said women would be offended.

The movie mostly follows the first book. I liked the movie but could see how it could be confussing to some people who haven't read the series. I agree that it could have been done better. I hope they didn't miss the boat on this one but I am afraid they did. To bad it is a good story.

 

[MMFanCipher]

Well, I've read all of the John Carter books and just got back from seeing the movie. I liked the movie. I think they did a good job with it. Did they add stuff and change stuff? Yes, they did, but they always do. A movie is a different medium than print and you have to do things differently. I don't think Disney did a very good job at marketing this movie and that's why the numbers are low. Hopefully the numbers will slowly increase as word of mouth spreads.

Did anybody else see the hidden Mickey? Check out Dejah Thoris's right shoulder.

 

[Florida_is_hot]

Hidden Mickey's never look for them. I find the whole concept strange, any time some Disney fans see two small circles and a big one the say hidden Mickey. I see two small circles and a big one.

As far a John Carter the reviews are mixed there is no way the movie will make 250 million...... well at least I have not recommended it or will ever buy the dvd.

 

[MMFanCipher]

Hidden Mickey's never look for them. I find the whole concept strange, any time some Disney fans see two small circles and a big one the say hidden Mickey. I see two small circles and a big one.

As far a John Carter the reviews are mixed there is no way the movie will make 250 million...... well at least I have not recommended it or will ever buy the dvd.

Sorry, but that's my definition of a hidden mickey.

As for it never making 250 million...

So it is written, so it shall be done.