Quick Word on “The Avengers”

I loved the movie.  I have already seen it more than once.  But “The Avengers” should never have been converted to 3-D. They did an absolutely awful post-production conversion job. I will from now on only watch “The Avengers” in 2-D. It looks great just that way.

For more on the 3-D versus 2-D experience you can read my review at SF-Fandom or check out what the SciFi Guy at Communizine has to say.

We’ve all been waiting for this film for a long time. I saw a few comments on the Web about the plot being spoiled by all the trailers that had been released. I really don’t think that was the case. There were enough undisclosed twists and turns left that I was amused, amazed, surprised, and touched by many scenes I didn’t know existed.

If you one of the three people left on Earth who are still dithering about whether to go see the movie, GO SEE IT (but not in 3-D).

Fans Believe “John Carter 2″ Can Be Achieved

I joined the Back to Barsoom Facebook Group when I first learned about it but I haven’t been feeling well the past few months so I only joined the discussions there a couple of days ago. While there are only 8,000+ members so far the core group of participants are very dedicated to their cause.

After all, for a “major flop” the “John Carter” film has managed to bring in almost $300 million so far this year. And while “John Carter” has completed its first run in US theaters for the most part, the DvD and Blu-Ray will be released on June 5 — which is still more than a month away.

The Carter fan group leaders estimate they need to help drive about $200 million in revenues for Disney in order to build a business case to greenlight a sequel. Technically, this is achievable. Other “failed movies” have generated millions of dollars in post-box office revenues. In fact, Saul Zaentz proved that merchandising rights tied to bad movies (such as Ralph Bakshi’s “The Lord of the Rings, Part One”) can be very, very lucrative. Had Zaentz not kept that candle burning in the window for 20 years there might have been no Peter Jackson trilogy.

Star Trek fans brought about a movie franchise launch 10 years after their TV show was cancelled. And from the movies sprang up four TV shows.

So what the fans of “John Carter” propose is not just wistful dreaming. All they have to do is bring together enough people to drive a couple hundred million dollars in DvD and merchandising sales. And these folks have connections with ERB, Inc. and the Disney Co. and PIXAR — they might just be able to arrange the right meeting of marketing minds to kick off a merchandising campaign to put Saul Zaentz’ Middle-earth Enterprises to shame.

Stranger things have happened.

To that end, discussions are under way (with some input from me, so understand I am NOT an unbiased reporter) for establishing a more public face for the John Carter fan group. They will most likely keep the Facebook group going for strategic discussions. That makes sense. But ideas being considered for now include:

• Starting a scifi convention circuit where volunteers reserve and man fan tables
• Special promotional artwork for posters and flyers to be distributed at conventions, book stores, DvD stores, comic book shops, gaming shops, etc.
• Letter writing campaigns (one is currently underway now)
• Asking science fiction bloggers to write about John Carter a couple of times a week in advance of the DvD release (I have offered to help promote those blogs by linking to them across my network)
• Starting a Web forum for John Carter fans (most likely on the central Back to Barsoom fan site
• Perhaps putting together a legal entity (a corporation) to take on some licensing (custom merchandise or things that can be manufactured through out-source and on-demand providers)

The letter writing campaign I mentioned above is called Operation Woola and I shared details at the SF-Fandom forums.

There is, by the way, ANOTHER Facebook site — a fanpage (basically a Facebook public forum) called John Carter Back to Barsoom – The Sequel Campaign where the founder is hoping to collect LIKEs to show off to Disney and potential merchandisers.

These are some very determined people. If they see the news media say anything negative about “John Carter” they are all over the articles with comments pointing out the movie’s worldwide box office take, the fact that millions of people DID go see it and love it, and to show their support for the film to Disney.

Having joined a few “save the show” fan movements in the past, I go into this with my eyes open — but frankly, to avoid doing something simply because it seems so daunting is not in my blood. I do it because I love the challenge and because I love my favorite TV shows and movies and books.

I do it because I am a science fiction fan.

So the clarion call has gone out. Come join us. You don’t have to have anything more than your teeth, your passion, and a love for “John Carter” and Barsoom.

Marvel Unleashes the Avengers TV Spots

It looks like Marvel Studios is pulling out all the stops as it ramps up last-minute promotion for its much-anticipated “The Avengers” movie, which opens on May 4 (not as previously reported on April 26). Here are a few recent promos I came across.

And on that note, Xenite.Org has also published a Scarlett Johansson as Black Widow announcement for its Scarlett Johansson – Black Widow Pictures Galleries. The galleries are split across 3 pages because there are so many pictures (there is also an image and a video in the blog post).

The SF-Fandom Forums have a Scarlett Johansson discussion as well as an Avengers One Sheet Discussion.

So I guess you could say that Xenite.Org and SF-Fandom have launched an Avengers/Scarlett Johansson blitz this weekend as well. Why not get in on the fun, after all?

John Carter Outperforms “The Lorax” 2nd Week in a Row

It’s official, according to Box Office Mojo. Not including Sunday’s revenues, “Dr. Seuss’ The Lorax” has only taken in $172 million after 3 weeks, whereas “John Carter” has taken in $179 million after only 2 weeks. Naturally, the US news media continues to heavily favor “The Lorax” in reporting box office success.

We can nitpick the metrics all day long but I’ll grant you that “The Lorax” has proven itself a profitable movie because it has already recouped its production costs.

“John Carter” may make back its $250 million production costs through continued box office sales but it’s looking more likely it will have to rely on Blu-Ray and DvD sales, TV licensing, and very limited merchandising sales (such as the soundtrack CD). Realistically, when you make a $250 million movie you probably need to think about the marketing well in advance of release. I’ve been saying that for two years.

Meanwhile, John Carter fans continue to assemble on Facebook in an effort to drum up support for a sequel. Disney has not yet announced anything (and if they decide NOT to do a sequel they may say nothing, if only to keep fans hanging and entice more ticket sales).

“John Carter” is a great movie but unfortunately the US news media flexed its social media strength to persuade American viewers to stay away. Even though several million American fans did go see the movie and overwhelmingly favored it in their online reviews and social media posts, The Hollywood Reporter and other online news organizations pulled out all their guns to pummel the movie’s reputation. They withheld vital overseas box office information, repeated the same old data several times each day, and consistently declared “John Carter” to be a disaster even though it has outperformed every other movie at the box office in 2012.

US audiences have the rest of this week (until Thursday night) to see “John Carter” at their local theaters. It’s possible the 3-D experience (totally unnecessary in this writer’s opinion) is putting off some people in addition to the negative media stance. However, you can also see “John Carter” in regular 2-D at many theaters.

It’s a real shame that Andrew Stanton and Disney decided to do the movie in 3-D. It probably would have been more appealing in a 2-D showing.

Indie Film Distributor Calling for Independent SciFi Films

If you make independent science fiction films and are looking for a distributor, check out Fuzion Filmz’ call for movies at the SF-Fandom forums.

Fuzion Filmz say they have 25 years’ experience at distributing independent films and they want to help science fiction film-makers find a market.

If you want to respond in the SF-Fandom forums and have trouble registering, feel free to Contact the SF-Fandom Administrators and we’ll be glad to help you get an account set up.

US News Media Buries “John Carter” Despite $100 Million Opening Weekend

How often do you see major entertainment and news organizations falling all over themselves to pretend that a movie like “John Carter” isn’t doing well? It’s like these journalists made such a big fuss about how “John Carter” was doomed that when the movie finally opened they intentionally downplayed all good news so as to try to kill the movie.

Yeah, Hollywood Reporter, I’m talking about you — and you, TIME, and you LA Times, and so on. If you want to know what the real story is about the “John Carter” box office is you almost have to stick to Forbes.

Here on Sunday night “The Lorax” has taken in about $123 million worldwide after 2 weeks and “John Carter” has taken in about $101 million worldwide after 3 days. Is it just me, or is the American news media struggling with the math?

The domestic box office looks dismal for “John Carter” — I will not dispute that. The movie has apparently only taken in around $30 million in the United States this weekend. This was despite hundreds or thousands of very favorable comments from viewers on social media sites — and the positive comments outpaced the negative comments by a factor of about 3 to 1 (this is not scientific but I looked at multiple Websites).

In other words, most of the people who see the movie like it. In fact, many of the commenters — who don’t have millions of visitors reading their comments — LOVE “John Carter”. But apparently the lack of enthusiasm among the young men ages 20-42 has grasped the media’s attention.

The majority of the audience appears to be made up of families, teens, and adults under 50 — but the majority of the positive comments are coming from women, especially young Taylor Kitsch-loving women.

If this trend holds true I think that the male audience will eventually follow because we all know that once the guys figure out that the girls love this movie they will follow the girls. And, besides, it’s a pretty good movie.

The most condescending post-release review I saw this weekend came from Locus, whose reviewer appears to be upset that Andrew Stanton could not resist updating the 100-year-old story for today’s audience. I mean, come on — be for real. Edgar Rice Burroughs was writing for a rather unsophisticated audience 100 years ago, as compared to today’s film-viewing audience. His readers in 1912 didn’t have 100 years of science fiction evolution laying the foundations of their expectations.

Still, all this confusion is not really the sensitive news media’s fault. It’s the fault of the Disney Company for not reaching out to and engaging the science fiction fan community starting 2 years ago. Successful film franchises are built on solid audience expectations these days and Disney went out of its way to confuse the story and the audience.

For example, why did they change the movie from “John Carter of Mars” to “John Carter”? The cover story for that major screwup is that they were afraid the audience would confuse the movie with “Mars Needs Moms”. Please. The audience would not have confused anything if Disney would have just been open and informative about the movie all along.

But to add insult to stupidty, Universal Pictures scooped Disney by signing a deal with AMC Theaters to insert the Lorax character (voiced by Danny DeVito) into AMC’s pre-film warning to the audience to please keep quiet. So every showing of “John Carter” at an AMC theater is pre-ceded by an ad for “The Lorax”. In fact, “The Lorax” has been inundating movie audiences with this kind of promotion for weeks.

What did Disney do to reach out to movie audiences? Virtually nothing.

Disney’s former VP of marketing, MT Carney, was supposed to ramp up Disney’s marketing machine. Instead she resigned under suspicious circumstances, apparently taking the fall for the failed marketing before her “plan” even began rolling out. But the real problem is that Disney’s Board of Directors and CEO have lost touch with the audience. They don’t understand that you MUST engage with the audience well in advance of a film’s release to build up anticipation for it.

The field is just too competitive.

All that is now water under the Battleship. Universal can expect to do well with its Taylor Kitsch movie because now they know who his demographic is — it ain’t the 30-42yo fanboys. Expect more advertising directed at women to come from Universal for “Battleship”.

But with a $100 million opening weekend “John Carter” doesn’t have to be written off as a total failure. It remains to be seen whether Disney can follow up this weekend’s strong worldwide showing with improved domestic promotion. Or maybe they don’t need to do so at all. Maybe the worldwide box office will return Disney’s $300 million investment (Production and Promotion costs combined). Maybe Disney will make $400 million off the film and greenlight the sequels.

Meanwhile, take what you read in the US news media with a huge bag of salt. They don’t want you to know how badly they called the shot, so they are NOT going to admit that “John Carter” had a HUGE opening weekend with $100 million.

More discussion follows at SF Fandom’s John Carter Forum.

“John Carter” of Mars Turned Out Okay

I wrote a lengthy review at for “John Carter” of Mars in which I share my very positive, supportive thoughts about the film.

What I want to share here is my disgust at the apparent poison pen campaign that someone in the film industry appears to have conducted against the movie. I began to realize something was up after reading this negative article in the L.A. Times. This was the second news story in a week where I came across references to some unnamed rival studio boss who was predicting disaster for “John Carter”.

I don’t know yet if the movie flops — I hope not. Now I want to see the sequels even more than before.

But we’ve been hearing all sorts of bad press about the movie from the film industry over the past couple of weeks. Supposedly, women didn’t like the movie. Oddly enough, there were plenty of women in the theater I went to who really enjoyed it.

Supposedly no young people are interested in the movie. Again, there were plenty of kids, teenagers, and college students in the audience — and they gave the film an ovation after it was over.

I don’t know how often people in the film industry try to torpedo each other’s projects — I suppose it happens quite often — but what disgusts me is that the news media played along. Someone down low apparently knows how to press buttons with the L.A. Times and other major news organizations willing to sell their integrity by pandering to old fashioned poison pen campaigns.

You’d think professional journalists would know better, but perhaps the disdain with which science fiction and fantasy are often treated by the news media excuses this kind of nonsense in their eyes. Well, the L.A. Times has no excuse. They should know better, and I expect better of them.

Disney screwed up royally in clamping down an embargo on the movie’s production for two years. They should have engaged with the fans all along, given us access to the development of Barsoom, and fed a steady stream of information and spy reports to major fan sites.

Disney owes the Edgar Rice Burroughs fandom a huge apology. They can make it up to us, however, by greenlighting the sequels to “John Carter” and getting the advance promotion right. Andrew Stanton did a great job with the movie. He just needs to come out and engage with the fans.

I think Edgar Rice Burroughs would have been pleased with the movie.