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Whisper Numbers: John Carter of marred.

After decades in development, Edgar Rice Burroughs’ original sci-fi action hero John Carter [OMARS] finally makes his $250 million cinematic debut from Disney.  Unfortunately, one of the worst marketing campaign in movie history is poised to result in an epic box office failure that won’t even open at number one.  Instead, Dr. Seuss’ The Lorax [LORAX] looks to retain first place after a $70 million debut last weekend. The animated environmentalist may decay less than 40% to $43 million.

Disney shortened the original title John Carter of Mars out of the fear that moviegoers don’t like movies about Mars. Instead of embracing the fanboy nature of the classic story that inspired Star Wars and Avatar, Disney decided to appeal John Carter to their family audience and ended up pleasing no one.   Lousy, incoherent trailers highlighted the generic CG action without explaining the story.   Any buzz generated thus far are largely negative.  Mixed reviews are unlikely to move those still sitting on the fence.  Taylor Kitsch [TKITS] lacks the starpower of even Prince of Persia’s Jake Gyllenhaal, while first time live-action director Andrew Stanton [ANSTA] is no James Cameron.  Transporting into 3749 theaters, John Carter may be grounded at just $28 million.

With competition from John Carter for the male demographic, Project X will probably drop more than 50% to $10 million in its sophomore session.

Elizabeth Olsen [EOLSE] stars in the R-rated horror Silent House [SILNH]. Open Road is marketing the film as being in real-time and shown in one continuous take. The gimmicky concept could entice horror fans to fork over $8 million from 2149 locations.

Paramount had shelved A Thousand Words [TWRDS] for years in hopes of Eddie Murphy [EMURP] regaining his box office draw. Unfortunately, that hasn’t happened and the PG-13 rated comedy gets dumped into 1890 theaters. A Thousand Words may earn just $5 million.

That’s the whisper from the virtual trading floor.



Tag(s): OMARS, LORAX, TKITS, ANSTA, EOLSE, SILNH, TWRDS, EMURP

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By Box Office Whisperer on Thursday, March 8, 2012 @ 04:26 PM 10668 views

Recent Comments

rvguy
Saturday, March 10 at 07:56 AM Pacific
I think $8 million from 2000+ theaters for Silent House will prove to be a grossly low projection. I think it will double that.
scott77
Sunday, March 11 at 03:46 AM Pacific
I saw 1k words last night and the theater was packed, although the movie was pretty lame.



Juror No. 2 (JUROR) 954 2.32 (-0.06)          Gladiator II H$70 Call (GLAD2.CA) 25000 2.44 (+0.44)          Red One (REDON) 133 105.06 (+0.77)          Gladiator II - Opening Weekend (GLAD2.OW) 100000 70.68 (+0.68)          Hitpig (HITPG) 7821 2.61 (+0.06)          Chiwetel Ejiofor (CEJIO) 25000 125.18 (+0.93)          Dear Santa (DSATA) 150000 7.59 (-0.51)          Red One (REDON) 150000 105.06 (+0.77)          Hitpig (HITPG) 2821 2.61 (+0.06)          Heretic (HERTC) 49118 24.89 (+1.23)          Heretic H$10 Call (HERTC.CA) 25000 1.45 (+0.05)          The Gutter (GUTER) 499 0.84 (-0.01)          The Legend of Zelda (ZELDA) 78 117.07 (-0.23)          Mickey 17 aka Mickey7 (MCKY7) 29111 91.62 (-0.04)          The Wild Robot $105M Blockbuster (TWRBT.BW) 25000 14.18 (+0.15)          Ansel Elgort (AELGO) 300 81.19 (+0.25)          Anora (ANORA) 99028 14.73 (+0.22)          Here (HERE1) 4992 19.67 (-0.09)          Shia Labeouf (SLABE) 14800 7.18 (+0.02)          The Mastermind (MSTMN) 150000 4.43 (+0.89)          Bob Trevino Likes It (BTLIT) 150000 1.76 (-0.24)          Here (HERE1) 1008 19.67 (-0.09)          I Want Your Sex (IWYSX) 150000 8.99 (+0.24)          Good Fortune (GDFRT) 50000 28.31 (+1.41)          The Gutter (GUTER) 992 0.84 (-0.01)          Juno Temple (JTEMP) 260 61.41 (+0.25)          CBS: Poppa's House (POPPAH) 25000 13.19 (+0.21)          The Graduates (GRADS) 994 0.10 (0.00)          The Graduates (GRADS) 994 0.10 (0.00)          CBS: Poppa's House (POPPAH) 25000 13.19 (+0.21)          September 5 (SEPT5) 82 14.49 (-0.88)          Reminders of Him (RMNDH) 49117 19.42 (-1.52)          Emilia Perez (EMILP) 486 0.73 (0.00)          Finn Wittrock (FWITT) 15200 5.31 (+0.03)          Reminders of Him (RMNDH) 149116 19.42 (-1.52)          Emilia Perez (EMILP) 986 0.73 (0.00)          The Wild Robot $105M Blockbuster (TWRBT.BW) 25000 14.18 (+0.15)          Untitled Lee Cronin Project (ULCRO) 10000 37.75 (+1.86)          The Wild Robot $105M Blockbuster (TWRBT.BW) 25000 14.18 (+0.15)          Good Fortune (GDFRT) 149119 28.31 (+1.41)          NBC: St. Denis Medical (STDMED) 25000 11.75 (+0.21)          NBC: St. Denis Medical (STDMED) 25000 11.75 (+0.21)          Blitz (BLTZ) 175 0.76 (-0.01)          Blitz (BLTZ) 92 0.76 (-0.01)          Wicked H$100 Put (WICKD.PU) 25000 1.93 (-0.07)          A Real Pain (ARLPN) 502 3.45 (-0.03)          Wicked H$100 Put (WICKD.PU) 25000 1.93 (-0.07)          A Real Pain (ARLPN) 998 3.45 (-0.03)          Weekend in Taipei (WKNTP) 150000 8.59 (-0.30)          Venom: The Last Dance (VENM3) 7598 143.14 (-0.99)