did disney hurt john carter?

Disney's John Carter looks set to become the biggest flop in movie history, with a loss of $200m. Whilst many reasons have been put forward for this monumental failure, I can't help thinking that one potential reason may have been overlooked. Yes the marketing may have been poor, the source material unfamiliar and the total lack of stars - suicidal, but could there be another contributory factor for this box office disaster? The fact it was marketed as a Disney movie.

Don't get me wrong, I love Disney - everything from the mouse to the movies, to the parks. But putting a Disney logo on a movie trailer gives a certain expectation - that the movie will be family friendly, and whilst that may delight some, it may also put others off. In particular it may put off the teen males that are needed to make such movies profitable.

Over the years, Disney have clearly recognise this themselves, in 1988 Who Framed Roger Rabbit was released under the Touchstone brand. When Disney distributed Miramax product, they didn't make people aware that they were bringing movies like Pulp Fiction to theatres.

An interesting case is Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl. This 2003 feature, was based on a Disneyland ride, but when the studio got spooked by the content of the movie, it was released without studio branding. No fairy-tail castle, no Touchstone logo. When it exceeded expectations and became a monster hit, the Disney branding was restored for the DVD release and the numerous sequels.

There have been other live action hits released under the Disney brand - National Treasure had the benefit of a big star and High School Musical 3 was an established tween brand. But there have also been big flops like the enjoyable Race to Witch Mountain, which interestingly was also Sci-fi themed. Animated feature Mars needs Moms (Sci-fi again!) also bombed big.

Soon Disney will release the Avengers movie, but there is unlikely to be Disney branding anywhere near it, just the logo of the studio they acquired it from; Paramount, and Disney's newly acquired subsidiary, Marvel. With the huge anticipation for it's release, it's unlikely that the Disney name would do the box office of the Avengers any harm, but after John Carter, it's unlikely that Disney will want to take the risk.