Walt Disney thought that only Star Wars would be their problem and for the next two weeks, they have the autonomy at the box office.
However, on May 8, a mid-budget movie produced by 20th Century Fox was released and the ticket sales of John Carter were affected. The title of the movie was Unfaithful. An erotic Thriller movie.
Erotic Thriller movies were quite famous around the late 90s and early 2000s. Fatal Attraction, Basic Instinct, and Eyes Wide Shut were just some of the famous movies of the genre. Of course the genre was still thriving in the next decades. The 50 Shades series was a successful franchise of this genre.
Perhaps because people were eager to look for something different, they decided to buy more tickets for Unfaithful compared to John Carter which was heavily invested.
The first ten days of John Carter grossed $53 million. As for Unfaithful, its first three days grossed more than $7 million.
Yes, for its genre, which was also rated R, Unfaithful was already doing well. Only a few R-rated movies such as John Wick, The Matrix, and The Hangover could earn a lot of money at the box office.
But oh well, because for obvious reasons, Erotic Thriller and Erotic movies were quite popular in DVDs and rentals. You know, people love to watch this kind of stuff in their house, preferably alone... To appreciate the art, of course.
Another week passed by and the confidence of the executives in John Carter was diminishing. They were watching shirtless as they saw how the numbers kept dropping to dangerous lines.
They already invested $350 million in this movie... That was a big slap to their faces. The fact that they could never recover their investment would be fatal to their future endeavors.
May 16 arrived and the most awaited sequel of Star Wars was released!
At that time, John Carter already made $62 million... Based on its increase alone, this movie already met its ending... In a week, the movie only made $9 million. That was so fucking sad, not going to lie.
Furthermore, John Carter was just released two weeks ago and it already lost its gas at the box office.
However, Walt Disney was still in denial, or perhaps Michael Eisner was in denial.
They could not accept that John Carter was a box office flop, a tragedy. They still decided to promote the movie for a week.
Also, Walt Disney had international distribution. Perhaps they could recoup their investment internationally.
So yeah, Walt Disney continued burning their money. Historically, this might be the biggest box office flop that Disney experienced on both timelines... Aside from The Lone Ranger, of course. Note that this movie was also produced by Walt Disney and its investment was big. But just like John Carter, The Lone Ranger didn't have much to show, but that would be another story.
Just as many expected, when Star Wars Episode 2: Attack Of The Clones, the first day box office was amazing.
May 16, the first day of Star Wars Episode 2 grossed over $30 million.
Yup, that was how it should be. This was the sign that the movie would have a good run at the box office, unlike John Carter who only made a mediocre $9 million.
Furthermore, the production cost of Star Wars Episode 2 was only $115 million. Compared to John Carter's $250 million, that was small. Yet it made a better start at the box office.
One thing was clear, there was something wrong with the movie. Well, who would want to watch a movie that had no clear ending...
Walt Disney focused too much on possible sequels, causing the downfall of John Carter.
When Disney felt like their promotion would be useless, they decided to lay low... They hope that the response of foreigners to their movie was worth it, or else...
In May only one movie dominated the month, it was Star Wars Episode 2.
When the month ended, Star Wars Episode 2 already made $216 million. The movie already recouped their investment in just a month and possibly earned more into their pockets.
As for John Carter and Walt Disney... Meh.
However, this was just the start of the summer season and more movies would be released in the next few weeks.
June arrived and Kazir didn't have a choice but to give the crew three days rest because he would return to Los Angeles to attend a premiere.
The filming of The Revenant was doing well. Kazir could even say that they were faster than the filming schedule. The crew was happy that they got a rest and most of them also returned to Los Angeles to meet their friends and families.
As for Tom Cruise, the star of the project, he decided to spend his time in Canada together with his current girlfriend, Penelope Cruz.
The couple didn't hide their relationship anymore now that Tom officially divorced Nicole Kidman.
Since Penelope was part of the cast, they could use this news as a way to advertise the movie. The two didn't have a problem. For Penelope, it could give her a better position in the industry while Tom was ready to do everything as long as he could earn a golden statue.
Kazir also suffered from a divorce and his experience was not that good.
Although Tom had it worst. After the separation with Nicole Kidman, Tom was criticized by many people. Some newspapers believed that Tom was brainwashed by Scientology. Causing the divorce of the two.
Honestly, Kazir had no clue what was Scientology's exact religion. He didn't give a fuck either.
Being a director, he knew that this industry was never a good place anyway. In fact, he believed that Hollywood was a huge cult itself.
Anyway, Kazir put on his suit and got prepared for the limousine. He tried to call Angelina, but the woman didn't answer.
Kazir sighed, he already expected this. He knew that his heart was not ready and he was afraid to get hurt. So before things became serious, he decided to think about it seriously.
He wanted to talk to Angelina but the woman never answered...