This $263M Sci-Fi Film Became One of The Worst Box Office Bombs of 2010s

Even though there are many movies based on novels that are huge successes with audiences, as famous books and authors are known to have a large and dedicated following, there are just as many instances of said fans turning their backs on adaptations they didn't like. The more nuanced the novel, the more difficult it is to adapt.

This is especially true of the fantasy and science fiction genres, which rely heavily on the reader's imagination. The author can describe the world in which the characters exist however he wants, with his words being the only limits.

The filmmaking process requires all this to be translated into sets, costumes and special effects, which can cost a lot and still not be enough to impress the audience.

This is exactly what happened with the 2012 science fiction film John Carter, based on the novel A Princess of Mars by Edgar Rice Burroughs. No matter how much money was spent and how many A-listers were involved in the production, the film still flopped at the box office.

Looking back 12 years later, John Carter seems grossly underrated.

Is John Carter Worth Watching?

Starring Taylor Kitsch and Lynn Collins, the film follows the journey of John Carter, an American Civil War veteran who is sent to Mars to try to quell the civil war that is brewing there. With a production budget of $263 million, the sci-fi epic flopped both commercially and critically.

With a 52% fresh critics score on Rotten Tomatoes, the film is being panned for being what it was originally intended to be: an adaptation of the series of novels popular with teenagers in the 70s and 80s. Described as 'cheesy' and 'tacky,' John Carter failed to impress critics who expected the epicism of Avatar and Star Wars.

However, some may argue that the real reason for John Carter's failure was not the production, but Disney 's poor marketing choices. From the title, which was changed to attract a wider audience but ended up alluding to the extremely popular original source, to the lack of the usual Disney promotional events, the movie simply got lost.

John Carter was probably never going to beat the upcoming Hunger Games or the ongoing saga of Disney's own Marvel superheroes, but the result could have been vastly improved if the studio had put a little more effort into promoting it.

If anything, John Carter is a very solid approximation of the Burroughs story. While some viewers hated the way it was done in 2012 because they had a very specific idea of how this story should be adapted, more open-minded viewers got a lot of enjoyment out of it. The more recent the views, the more praise John Carter gets.

If you are interested in checking out John Carter for the first time or revisiting the movie you used to hate, John Carter is available for streaming on Disney Plus.