hollywood melon man

The original director of "John Carter" was Andrew Stanton, one of the five Pixar directors, who had previously directed "Finding Nemo" and "Wall-E".

Like the other five generals, they also wanted to develop into live-action movies after their animated films achieved success. Brad Bird directed "Mission Impossible 4" and Andrew Stanton directed "John Carter".

But David Ellison felt that it was unsafe for an animated film director to direct "John Carter", so he replaced him with J.J. Abrams.

But at this moment, even changing the director seems unable to save the reputation of "John Carter".

After the ban on media ratings for the premiere was lifted, although David Ellison bribed many media outlets to give positive reviews, most media outlets still gave their own honest reviews.

The headline of the entertainment section of Empire magazine gave a positive review: "John Carter is the creative source of all the classic science fiction, fantasy and superhero movies we have seen before."

As a result, the second edition launched a fierce criticism of the film: "Its plot couldn't be more earthy - an old soldier whose family was destroyed on Earth traveled to an alien planet and gained supernatural powers, thus winning the country and the beauty.

It’s a simple and crude inspirational story, with a hint of eroticism. Even children’s dramas are more dramatic than this one.”

Netizens also had some fun, commenting: "Giving you a good review is because of the advertising fee, but giving you a bad review is our job."

Many media outlets are similar to Empire Magazine, giving positive reviews on the front page, but overturning them on the second page. This fully illustrates what it means to make money, but I have a bottom line.

Of course, there is a bottom line, but it is very flexible.

In addition, many popular film critics gave their own comments. Peter said: "Only after watching this film can you truly appreciate how terrible Gilbert's directing level is in The Avengers.

Everyone says that the story of The Avengers is simple and clichéd, but this terrible John Carter can't even tell a simple story well."

In fact, after coming back, Anne Hathaway also expressed her opinion: "I think this movie is actually quite good, with beautiful special effects.

Although the plot of a hero saving a beautiful girl is old-fashioned, it also represents popularity, and it doesn’t look like a film that will fail.”

"If this movie had come out before Avatar, I think it would have done well," Gilbert Jr. explained. "But unfortunately, it didn't."

In fact, James Cameron once admitted to Gilbert Jr. that the story structure of "Avatar" borrowed from "A Princess of Mars", the original novel of "John Carter".

You know what, they do look quite similar.

Both are stories about falling in love with an alien princess and then saving the alien race, but the blue man in "Avatar" is obviously not as good as Rachel McAdams in "John Carter".

Zoe Saldana is obviously not as beautiful as Rachel McAdams in real life, and Ryan Reynolds's image as a human is obviously more acceptable to the audience than Sam Worthington who turned into a blue man.

But despite this, "Avatar" is a film that breaks history. However, "John Carter" has faced so many twists and turns, but it has failed to replicate the success of "Avatar".

I have to say, sometimes things are really strange.

In this way, this blockbuster with an investment of 2.5 million US dollars was released nationwide on June 6. At the midnight show, the film dealt a heavy blow to David Ellison.

"421?"

David Ellison's fingers turned white as he held the box office statistics report. He asked, "What was the box office for the midnight screening of The Avengers?"

"US$1970 million, the fifth highest midnight box office record in film history."

David Ellison felt even more upset after hearing his assistant's answer. He knew why Gilbert's smile was so sincere after watching the movie, because he had anticipated the prospects of the movie.

Michael Ovitz also comforted him: "David, don't worry, many movies with good box office have poor midnight shows, we still have hope in the future."

"Yes."

Martin Bob added: “Midnight shows mainly rely on the box office appeal of the director and actors, and are generally watched by die-hard fans.

In this regard, we have no advantage in John Carter, and the midnight box office performance of $421 million is actually quite good.”

What Martin Bob said is not wrong. Generally speaking, the midnight shows basically rely on the support of loyal fans.

Marvel Studios created such a high midnight box office through the accumulation of several films, coupled with the box office appeal of Gilbert Jr.

If you are not a loyal fan, no one would want to go out at night. After all, the security conditions in North America are not good at night.

The box office data of John Carter's midnight screening was also sent to Gilbert Jr., who was honestly a little surprised. "It actually got $421 million?"

Having been a producer for several years, Cameron Diaz actually understands the market very well.

She laughed and said, "It's normal. After all, the dispute between David Ellison and J.J. Abrams was hyped so much before, and many people are curious."

"That's true."

Little Gilbert nodded and let the matter go. In his opinion, unless God helped, John Carter was doomed to fail.

The film had an investment of up to $2.5 million, and Sky Studios and Sony Columbia even offered more than $1 million in publicity and distribution costs.

With such a high cost, the movie could only recover the cost with a box office of $3 million in North America and $4 million overseas. But now, David Ellison can only wish for the best.

Things really happened just as Gilbert Jr. had expected, and the new film "John Carter" was released across the United States this weekend.

The grand occasion that David Ellison imagined did not come. Most of the audiences who went to the cinema chose "The Avengers" which was in its third weekend of release.

However, "John Carter" was reduced to sharing the remaining market share with other films. Even with the box office of midnight shows, the box office on the first day was only 1423 million US dollars.

The first-day box office data is too eye-catching. In the words of the Los Angeles Times: On the first day of the release of "Avengers", the city of New York alone contributed more than 1500 million US dollars in box office revenue.

What’s even worse is the complete collapse of the cinema’s reputation. Not to mention Rotten Tomatoes, a website that collects critics’ reviews, the freshness rating is only 43%, making it a terrible movie in the eyes of critics.

The IMDB score was only 5.6, which didn't even reach the passing line.

Some films didn’t make it to the passing line, but they still did well at the box office. John Carter, on the other hand, not only did it not make it to the passing line, but it was a complete flop at the box office.

When David Ellison saw the box office data in his hand, his head buzzed and he could no longer hear the words of comfort around him.

He stared at the box office data in a daze, and suddenly shouted, "Damn it, he set a trap for me again."

Then he closed his eyes, kicked his legs, and fainted.

If David Ellison had died, it would have been a Hollywood curiosity, but unfortunately, he didn't.

When he woke up, it was already Monday morning.

"David, are you awake?"

Michael Ovitz was relieved when he saw David Ellison regain consciousness. Everyone was terrified when David Ellison fell down in the past two days.

"Michael."

David Ellison's first concern was the box office of John Carter: "How is the box office going?"

Michael Ovitz sighed and said, "I told you to hold on."

"You tell me, I can hold on."

Seeing David Ellison's determined look, Michael Ovitz had no choice but to report: "Only $3027 million in the first weekend."

"How many?"

"$3027 million."

After hearing this, David Ellison kicked his legs and fainted again.

"David? Doctor, doctor..."

During the period when David Ellison was unconscious, once the novelty wore off, John Carter's box office dropped rapidly.

It only took in $934 million on Saturday and just $670 million on Sunday.

For a blockbuster production, this is a box office failure that couldn't be more of a failure. (End of this chapter)