It lacked structure and presentation and that's one of the reasons that people were put off, by it. I think if it was tailored a lot more to the structure that we're used to, though, it might have ruined it.
Also, a lot of people thought it was just an effects driven action film and that's what they were expecting, then, when they saw it they didn't see anything special about the effects or the action sequences.
As a film that works to please the general movie-going audience and it's basic, shallow expectations, it ails.
But as a geek-pleaser, it's perfect. I'll be watching this for some time to come, I'm sure. It's failings are completely inconsequential to me. It's awesome and I know it.

It failed to get people in the door because no one knows or cares who John Carter is, than it failed by keeping the people who did go see it in there seats and spreading the word with a mediocre movie.

John Carter was a brilliant film! And it 'DOES' have thousands and thousands of fans from all over the world who want to go Back To Barsoom. Fans are discovering John Carter everyday through DVD and TV now. I see them come in on Twitter on Facebook everyday. And all looking for a Sequel! There is much more of a following and fan base for John Carter than people realize.

John carter, Robin Hood and Green lantern!?

Mark Strong has been in alot of expensive flops

They should've gone full on Frazetta with the look of the movie.

It was entertaining, shame it flopped...

It was waaay better than the box office results.
Not every good movie is a hit & obviously many crappy films make a ton of money.

What bugs me is that Taylor Kitsch is a much better actor than say Channing Tatum who for some reason keeps getting roles in successful films.
Taylor deserves a super successful movie at some point.

Lynn Collins is very good actress & so beautiful.
Sorry guys but Emma Stone & Kristen Stewart get a lot of attention but those girls are not as attractive as Lynn.

I liked it,watched it again a few weeks ago,much better than folk gave it credit for.Certainly better than a few comicbook adaps from last year I could mention.

I liked it, I think it suffered from really, really lousy marketing!! IMO

It was outstanding entertainment ruined by the dumbest marketing campaign of recent years and the worse studio statement made after release that I can ever remember.

1: Changing the name from "John Carter and The Princes of Mars" to simply "John Carter" turned the whole thing into a presentation gimmick. Instead of a title that suggests its genre, they delivered a title that made consumers ask themselves "What, who gives a shit?"

2: The day after its lousy opening weekend, some dumb Disney exec cam out with a statement about how the film is going to loose them several million. DUMB ASS, you never declare your movie still born in its first week, you might as well tell everyone to stay away!

3: The hottest woman on the screen this year in the film and she didn't even make it on any of the terrible posters for the equally terrible ad campaign.

4: The USA cinema-going public! The movie did 73% of its business internationally, a half decent $200 million for a brand new franchise. But domestically in its own country it did a mere $73 million because of the stupidity above. To put things into perspective, the first Twilight movie made slightly less than John Carter internationally with $199 million. Yet Domestically it made $192 million, enough to show the studio its worth investing the potential growth of the franchise and look what happened, the final Twilight movie made $823 million worldwide.

Scifi fanboys especially needed to back their own genre and go see this on opening weekend instead of sitting on the fence with their piggy banks waiting for Dark Knight and Spider-man. It could have been the start of a very successful franchise!

It wasnt bad, but it sure as hell want good. Really hope we dont see Kitsch again, he's just...not good. And if he has the potential, he needs to stop taking crappy movie deals. Like Battleship....really?

he was also a horrible Gambit.

him and Ryan Reynolds need to both stay away from these movies.

It really wasn't that bad.

My problem was it wasn't alien or Mars like enough and was too close to Avatar but we know why now. Plus it looked like it was filmed near Yuma; where's the RED planet? And I really think they over did it on his ability to jump, he's from Earth not Krypton. Having said that, I don't think it deserved to be slammed as harshly or to become the biggest financial flop ever, it did have some good action. It's too bad, it could have made for a good franchise I think.

Marketing was not the reason this movie flopped.

Bad script, substandard acting, unimpressive effects and weak action scenes are the reasons this movie flopped.

It was hard to sit and watch the whole thing. I don't know how the original books were, but the story from the movie was both weak and full of ridiculous inconsistencies. And the dog! Why do these big budget sci-fi movies feel the need to add the incredibly stupid comic relief characters that don't work?

Maybe the books were wonderful, but this movie deserved to flop.

@niklander - Great point! I forgot about how horrible the marketing campaign for this movie was. I had really not planned to see it and was not excited about it at all. Some of my friends (also comic book fans) told me I needed to see it, and I was pleasantly surprised. The marketing was definitely garbage.