On Monday, The Walt Disney Company admitted it expects to suffer a loss of around $200 million in the on-going quarter due to the poor market performance of their highly expensive sci-fi film “John Carter”. This confession from media giants also caused the value of their shares in the stock market to decrease by 1%.
The forecast, conveyed to the press via an official statement, revealed that the company’s total operating loss for the same period could be somewhere between $80 million-$120 million. Monday’s closing price of The Walt Disney Co.’s shares in the New York Stock Exchange was $43.44, but fell down by $0.44 in after-hour trading due to the company’s gloomy statement.
“John Carter”, which revolves around a former Confederate soldier who somehow finds himself on Mars, has so far earned $184 million in overall revenue from all international markets. However, that seemingly impressive figure is not even enough to achieve breakeven status, as the movie consumed a quarter of a billion dollars during its production alone.
Disney’s extravagant marketing and advertising campaigns saddled the movie with more heavy sums and now follows its struggle to recuperate the invested amount.
Before its March 9 release, experts of the movie industry had predicted that “John Carter” could fail to gain the kind of traction required for it to turn a profit. Even on its debut weekend, it failed to be the highest-grossing movie with ticket sales of just $30 million and beaten by 3D animated flick “The Lorax”.