2. John Carter
Pre-production: The director Andrew Stanton normally works with PIXAR and has had big successes with films
like WALL-E.
Box office and reviews: It lost a sum of £126million at the box office. BBC reviews called it “boring, boring,
boring” which may have been because as one critic said the film was “two and a quarter hours long and the
characterisation is ludicrous”.
It made Disney’s shares go down by 1%. It took approximately $250million to produce and Disney’s chosen
marketer Ricky Strauss spent a further $100million on marketing. But the film only made around $9million on
the first weekend as an opposed to the $75million that Disney had optimistically hoped for.
3. Slumdog Millionaire
Distribution: Pathe used online marketing to target specifically “Indian moviegoers and Danny Boyle
enthusiasts”. One of their microsites that was used for marketing attracted over 21 million viewers and this is
both a free and modern way of advertising.
Box Office and reviews:The Danny Boyle film took £2.6 million last weekend, up a record 44 per cent from its
opening weekend earnings of £1.8 million.
The Chicago sun: “This is a breathless, exciting story, heartbreaking and exhilarating at the same time.”
Reception: Slumdog Millionaire won a further 7 BAFTA Awards and their Golden Globe nominations also
heightened interest. It was also tipped for Oscar success from very early on.