Movies

'John Carter' set to bomb big

OK, the question now isn’t whether ‘John Carter’ is going to bomb, it’s how big it’s going to bomb.

Fellow film critic James Sanford from Lansing City Pulse tweeted the film is the “Heavens Gate” of sci fi and aside from that being funny it’s also likely accurate. The first truly big movie of the year may actually be one of the biggest bombs of all time.

How bad are things for “John Carter”? Right now on the ticket site Fandango “The Hunger Games” is selling more tickets by a margin of well over 2 to 1 — and “The Hunger Games” doesn’t come out for another two weeks!

“John Carter” — which cost $250 million to make, and that doesn’t count marketing costs — only eked out about $500,000 from midnight showings, and it looks unlikely to even open with $30 million this weekend. Compare that to something like “The Devil Inside” which cost $1 million to make and opened to $33 million.

Ouch. Big ouch.

Tom Long
Tom Long is The Detroit News Film Critic. You can reach him at (313) 222-8879 or email him at tlong@detnews.com.

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