With some big comic book, fantasy and science fiction movies coming out next year, I thought it would be interesting to talk about box office predictions, as well as looking back at some previous films that the new ones are connected. For example, today, this article is about Andrew Stanton's John Carter, so we talk about that (you guys share your thoughts in the comment section, of course) and we take a look at the source material, actors, possible predictions and more. But, if we're discussing Marvel's The Avengers, we'll talk about the solo films of the Marvel Cinematic Universe - THOR, Iron Man, Captain America...
I'm not sure how many parts will there be, but I'll also write about The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey, G.I. Joe: Retaliation, The Amazing Spider-Man, The Dark Knight Rises and more. So, let's get started.
In 1912, Edgar Rice Burroughs' science fiction novel A Princess of Mars was originally published as Under the Moons of Mars, and it was the first time everyone was introduced to the big adventure in the later popular Barsoom series. In 1917 it was changed to the title it has today. Many writers (even H. P. Lovecraft) said that Burroughs and his stories were inspiration for some of their work.
Next year, for the first time ever, a big screen adaptation based on the first novel (A Princess of Mars) will hit theatres, titled John Carter, distributed by Walt Disney Pictures and directed by Andrew Stanton, who is best known for directing the Oscar-winning films WALL-E and Finding Nemo. This is one of the projects that many tried to develop but it's not until now, that studio managed to finally finish it. This last week, Disney has released a lot of new stuff from the film: images, banners, viral website and of course, a second trailer featuring new footage which changed a lot of opinions regarding this movie. While I prefer the first teaser more because of couple of reasons, the new trailer showed us some big scale action scenes, scope of the film, more characters, and as a fan of the source material, I really liked what I saw. But, it seems that many think how John Carter looks like Attack of the Clones (creature designs) and has the same story as Avatar. The thing is, both of these films have one thing in common, and that is that they have been very much inspired by Edgar Rice Burroughs' work, especially with the material John Carter is based on. Back in 2009, in an interview with New Yorker, director James Cameron himself confirmed that he looked at John Carter of Mars for telling the story in Avatar. So saying that John Carter has the same story or characters as the films mentioned above, is not exactly fair, considering it's the other way around.
When looking at the science fiction and fantasy movies, it's definitely hard to predict how much money will they make at the box office. In October, a rumor surfaced online saying that
John Carter needs to make around $700 million worldwide to guarantee a sequel. Now, considering that the budget for the film is somewhere between $200M and $250M, it usually goes that movies need to make twice its production budget, plus marketing (which goes from $50M to $100M for big budget movies) to be called a box office success. So,
John Carter would have to make between $500 and $600 million to be a success. With the March 9th release date, the marketing for
John Carter is gearing up, and considering that there is quite a big fan base for Burroughs' novels, I think we can expect a solid opening weekend in the range of $70-$75 million (US only), and then if the reviews are good, it could end up at maybe $190-$200 domestically. As with most of the films, international numbers are bigger, and people forget that studios no longer look at US numbers alone. Since this film is based on really popular material, I would say that it could definitely make enough, and hopefully guarantee a sequel. As far as the cast goes, it's pretty great. Even though X-Men Origins: Wolverine was not good,
Taylor Kitsch did a decent job playing Gambit with the script he had. I'm definitely looking forward to his performance as John Carter. His Wolverine co-star
Lynn Collins is playing Dejah Thoris (Princess of Helium),
Willem Dafoe is doing the motion capture/voice for Tars Tarkas,
Mark Strong is playing Matai Shang, and the rest of the cast includes
Bryan Cranston,
Dominic West,
Thomas Haden Church,
James Purefoy,
Ciarán Hinds and
Daryl Sabara is playing Edgar Rice Burroughs, the nephew of John Carter. So, what are your thoughts on this adaptation of Edgar Rice Burroughs' novels? Are you a fan of the source material and do you think
John Carter will be a box office hit?