Before John Carter came out there was tons of talk about the movie’s budget and that pre-release opinion of audiences would spell doom for the company. Disney was optimistic though, pumping a lot of money into advertising. Unfortunately, it turned out to be bad advertising. On top of that, the movie wasn’t great so word of mouth can’t help it.

Now Disney has forfeited and admitted that John Carter will lose the studio about $200 million. The statement was published via sites like Deadline. The movie has made around $184 million Internationally, but only about $45 – $50 million in the United States in two weeks. On top of that it fell 55% in its second week. That’s no bueno.

Disney is only referring to John Carter’s theatrical run in its loss estimates too, any money from DVD sales, TV rights, VOD, etc will likely be profit. Maybe. [Deadline]

“In light of the theatrical performance of John Carter ($184 million global box office), we expect the film to generate an operating loss of approximately $200 million during our second fiscal quarter ending March 31. As a result, our current expectation is that the Studio segment will have an operating loss of between $80 and $120 million for the second quarter. As we look forward to the second half of the year, we are excited about the upcoming releases of The Avengers and Brave, which we believe have tremendous potential to drive value for the Studio and the rest of the company.”

disney, john carter