The Weekend Box Office: Despite Huge Budget, Disney’s ‘John Carter’ Disappoints

Despite an extremely large $250 million budget and backing from the house of mouse itself, Disney’s John Carter disappointed at the box office this past weekend. The film sat at second place behind last week’s number one, Dr. Seuss’ The Lorax, which held on to the top spot despite a 44 percent drop off from last week. Other newcomers in the top ten this week included the horror/thriller Silent House and Eddie Murphy-lead comedy A Thousand Words, though neither film managed to break the $10 million barrier. Once again, Sony had no new debuts this week, though Sony/Screengems powerhouse The Vow remained in the top ten. Ghost Rider Spirit of Vengeance fell out of the top ten this weekend.

Hit the jump for a full rundown of this weekend’s box office results.

John Carter made an estimated $30.6 million, failing to finish above second-week superpower The Lorax. The film, based on a little known Disney character, had a huge budget and was marketed fairly well, including ads that ran during the Superbowl in early February. Still, numbers weren’t nearly as high as expected, and marketing for the film is being appropriately criticized for not portraying what or who the film is really about. Compared to other Disney live-action movies, John Carter finished near the very bottom, with Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl and Tron Legacy grossing more in their opening weekends. Only Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time performed worse on its opening. John Carter currently has a rotten review score on Rotten Tomatoes and a slightly more promising 72 percent user score.

Despite a 44 percent drop from last week, The Lorax finished in first with nearly $40 million, well on its way to becoming the year’s highest-grossing movie by overtaking The Vow. Giant party movie Project X finished in third place with $11.5 million, not bad considering the film’s low budget and solid open.

In terms of newcomers this week, horror flick Silent House opened very poorly considering the genre and Eddie Murphy comedy A Thousand Words also underperformed with $6.3 million, similar to other Murphy-lead flops like Meet Dave and Imagine That. No other new films debuted in the top ten this weekend.

On the Sony front, Sony Pictures-produced 21 Jump Street releases this Friday, starring Jonah Hill and Channing Tatum.