John Carter and the Gods of Hollywood

by Sellers, Michael D.

  As Disney prepared to enter the Online Phase of the campaign, the “battle lines” had been drawn as follows: John Carter was now set for a March 9, 2012 release. Its main competition in the March frame was The Hunger Games-- a futuristic Dystopian sci-fi film that had as its starting point a substantially stronger fan base than John Carter because it was based on the immensely (and currently) popular young adults by Suzanne Collins. John Carter would have a two week head start on The Hunger Games, which opened March 23, so if typical patterns prevailed John Carter would have earned approximately 55% of its Domestic Gross prior to The Hunger Games opening -- but more generally it would be competing with The Hunger Games throughout Online Phase of the campaign for the early 2012 “buzz factor” and thus The Hunger Games could have an effect on the entirety of the John Carter run, not just the period in which the two films were both in theaters.

  Another combatant in the March release frame was Dr. Seuss’ The Lorax, coming out on March 2, 2012, a week ahead of John Carter. While the demographic for The Lorax was different from either John Carter or The Hunger Games, this was a film which--particularly with John Carter being branded as a Disney release--could impact the fortunes of John Carter. Another film that was positioned to affect John Carter’s fortunes was 21 Jump Street, the reboot of the 1980s TV series, which would be released on March 16, one week into the John Carter run. A fourth film, Wrath of the Titans, would compete with John Carter and The Hunger Games in the general buzz arena.142

  As Disney went into the active phase of the campaign, its digital assets including it s website, Facebook, Twitter account, etc, were in place and thus an analysis of Disney’s profile coming into the active campaign is useful in establishing what was the “digital DNA” of John Carter as the campaign launched.

  John Carter: Digital Starting Point

  What was the status of the new media component to the campaign as the active phase of the campaign began? The question is a valid one, keeping in mind that Carney had been hired with the intention of reallocating resources from traditional media to new media, and with a mandate to strengthen Disney’s marketing performance in the new media arena. By June 2011 she had been on the job for over a year -- an eternity in digital terms. The question clearly emerges -- how did the John Carter digital campaign stack up?

  There is an obvious template against which to measure John Carter’s “digital DNA” and that is Avatar. The similarity in the films is obvious: a human soldier goes to an alien planet and makes his way among the native people, falling in love with a beautiful alien and emerging as a leader of the planet where the action takes place. Cameron himself, in no less than 5 interviews, had said that his main inspiration for Avatar was John Carter of Mars. So, with Avatar grossing $2.8B worldwide, and with the sequel to Avatar not coming out until 2015 at the earliest, John Carter would be in a prime position to capture at least a substantial segment of the Avatar audience if it could position itself effectively.

  The Avatar New Media Profile

  The Avatar website143 was groundbreaking and designed to create excitement among the early adopters and influencers who would be visiting it during the long run-up to the release. Apart from the standard mix of trailers, gallery images, and background materials, the site features 14 side-scrolling square boxes which are designed to showcase the unique digital initiatives that made the film stand out.

  Visitors had access to the story, detailed character biographies, music, a variety of wallpaper downloads -- none of which were groundbreaking but which were exceptional in the level of detail and variety available.

  More innovative is the “Pandorapedia,” a wiki for all things relating to Avatar where fans contributed to an encyclopedic rendering of the world of Avatar -- in the process achieving a “cool factor” which was unmatched. The Pandorapedia eventually evolved into 695 web pages, each containing detailed information on a topic relating to Pandora. By harnessing the power of user generated content, the site was assured of being dynamic, constantly evolving, and relevant.

  An additional innovation came in the form of interactive trailers which integrated social media feeds and provided viewers with the option to click on a character in the trailer to unlock additional content about the character. The trailer also included three “click to purchase” options to buy tickets.

  Overall, the Avatar website was a richly imagined world, promising the same from the movie itself and creating a forum on which the early adopters and entertainment influencers could congregate and build a community through the Pandorapedia and other functions.

  Other innovations that were not strictly digital but synergized with the digital effort included that August 21, 2009 became “Avatar Day” with moviegoers able to watch 16 minutes of footage from the film in 100 IMAX 3-D theaters worldwide four months prior to the film’s release. Coordinated with this, on the same day a video game based on the film was released by Ubisoft, and action figures by Mattell were released into the marketplace. At the same time what would become the main theatrical trailer was released -- to a whopping 4 million downloads on iTunes alone.

  While attending to the website, the campaign also attended to the other main arenas of online activity so that by the time the film was released, Avatar had acquired 1.3 Million Facebook fans, 800,000 MySpace friends, and 25,000 Twitter followers.

  The Twitter campaign included a unique “Tweet to Listen” promotion wherein fans could send a message on Twitter and receive in return a download of music from the film. On YouTube, the Avatar trailer garnered 11 Million views, photos were available on Flickr (1 Million views) and the promotion created a Typepad blogging community with 4,000 members who blogged regularly about the film.

  A consistent pattern of the Avatar profile was that it was clearly geared to the 15-24 (and up) demographic. Nothing about it was “dumbed down” for ‘tweens or younger, and the presentation of the world of Pandora and the characters created by Cameron was consistently handled in a way that was consistent with this demographic targeting.

  John Carter New Media Profile

  One of the key decisions was that, rather than give John Carter a standalone website with its own URL, Disney would place the John Carter website on the Disney.go platform; thus it is accessed through the URL www.disney.go/johncarter and thus has strong identification with the Disney brand -- including a permanent header including mouse ears and other Disney advertising at the top of each web page.

  The decision to situate John Carter on the Disney.go website was an early decision that had consequences, as it contextualized John Carter’s online presence as part of the Disney brand of mostly kiddie entertainment. Such would not be true, for example, for The Avengers, which would go up on a Marvel website and be contextualized that way; or The Help which was presented on a standalone site at www.thehelpmovie.com.

  The official John Carter website at www.disney.go/johncarter contained the standard elements of a trailer, synopsis, film background, photo gallery, and character images.

  Prior to the release, the site contained a brief 100 word synopsis and a total of 11 character pages.

  John Carter: Born in Virginia and a veteran of the Civil War, John Carter is an honorable and courageous man. However, the war left him dispirited and broken. Accidentally transported to the planet of barsoom, he soon finds his strength and jumping abilities greatly amplified. He must use these newfound powers to survive the centuries old war between the native inhabitants and save this dying world.

  Dejah Thoris: Dejah Thoris is the Princess of Helium. She is also a Regent of the Royal Academy of Science and a fierce fighter. She is on the verge of a scientific discovery that could shift the balance of power between Helium and their vile enemy, Zodanga.

  The brevity of the character descriptions, and the “fifth grade” style of writing employed, were typical of Disney copy targeted at the ‘Tween level or below, and was in clear contrast to Avatar’s “15-24” demographic focus.

  Notably absent from
the John Carter website was any effort to contextualize the story based on the source material. There was no section devoted to the history of A Princess of Mars; nothing devoted to Edgar Rice Burroughs; nor was there any opportunity for fans to interact -- no “Barsoomapedia” (even though there were plenty of fans who would have gladly created a richly detailed wiki that would have rivaled the Pandorapedia).

  As for Facebook; there had not been a single update since January 2011; and the Twitter Account for John Carter did not yet exist -- and would only be created on June 15, 2011, as the online phase kicked off. In both of these areas, ‘Carter lagged far behind Avatar at the equivalent stage.

  In sum -- in comparison to its most relevant comparable “template” Avatar, John Carter had a steep climb ahead if it was to gain enough traction with its digital profile to be able to use those early adopters and influencers to generate and sustain interest in the film.

  The Digital Campaign Kicks Off

  The campaign in earnest began on June 15, 2011, with an extended interview of Andrew Stanton by Geoff Boucher in the influential LA Times Hero Complex section.144 This would be followed by the release of the teaser poster the next day, followed by release of other materials culminating with the release of the teaser theatrical trailer on July 15, 2011, online and in theaters on the head of Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows.

  In the interview with Boucher, Stanton in answer to the first question casually mentioned doing “a month of reshoots” in April -- an acknowledgment that would be picked up on by other journalists who, in later interviews, would begin to drill down into the issue of reshoots, which are normally perceived as a sign that a production is in trouble. Boucher let the comment pass, however, moving on to other topics -- including the decision by Disney, endorsed by Stanton, to skip the upcoming Comic-con -- a huge San Diego annual geekfest that had traditionally been a “must-do” for fantasy sci-fi films. Carney’s thinking on skipping Comic-con as a launch pad was based largely on the fact that there had been a series of high profile geek-friendly films that debuted loudly at Comic-con -- then fizzled at the box office, including Sucker Punch, Tron: Legacy, and others. Disney was not the only studio dodging Comic-con 2011: Warner Bros, DreamWorks, The Weinstein Company all had films in the pipeline that were suitable for a Comic-con unveiling; all passed. “I think ....the perception is that it’s getting harder and harder to stand out amid the din,” Stanton said. “We’re going to do our special event [Disney’s D23 Convention in August] to get some focus and separation. I know some people will read that as a sign we’re unsure of our property. It’s just the opposite. We want to control how and what is being seen and the way it is presented. So much stuff now is just spit out so fast and the churn of it all. You almost gain nothing by talking about things really early in this day and age.”145

  In various interviews Stanton would make known his notion that it was important to avoid too much ‘here’s everything’ in the promotion -- whether in the trailer or otherwise -- and to keep a degree of mystery and intrigue.146

  Yes, I hate that. I feel that the audience is smarter than that. They’ve heard me rant this way too many times, but I said, “Give them some credit.” I now hear anybody—I don’t care what their age is, what their demographic is, where they come from—when they show a trailer everything in, I hear somebody whispering, “Well, that’s the whole movie; it must not be good.” All people see when they see that is you’re not confident in what you have and you’re afraid. You assume your audience is dumb or won’t get it. If I have any say in it, I don’t want to go with that. I’ve been teased way too many times very successfully for most of my career and my youth to know that it can be done, and it can be done every time. It ends up being sometimes a reflection of the people doing that they can’t do it, so they point at others. We say we want you to see more, but we actually don’t. We just want you to have a little bit of a sense that we won’t be wasting our time to go on the air.

  Keeping in mind Stanton’s stature and the latitude and respect he was being given in the marketing -- and likewise keeping in mind MT Carney’s inexperience and workload issues--it is clear that the paucity of publicity for John Carter until the point of the launch of the new media phase of the campaign was attributable to both.

  The Teaser Poster

  Online, the teaser poster debuted in the immediate aftermath of the LA Times interview. Stanton’s hand could be seen more clearly in this poster, than would be the case in future posters. The color scheme reflected the color scheme of the title treatment of the movie, and the banners that were released were precisely aligned with the title treatment in the movie itself.

  The reaction to the poster was decidedly mixed. Sandy Schaefer in Screen Rant offered: “John Carter Teaser Poster Reveals Little,”147 and while the poster definitely had some adherents who felt that it was stylish, brooding, and “teased” without telling too much -- commentary generally trended negative. Kevin Jagernauth of Indie Wire’s The Playlist called it “deeply uninteresting” and observed:148

  With "John Carter Of Mars" recently dropping half its title to simply "John Carter" and now with the first poster being unveiled, it seems Disney is hell bent on making sure audiences don't know this movie takes place in outer space. Instead, if we were to take a guess, the movie appears to be about Taylor Kitsch's quest to get a tribal tattoo (oh wait, that's just the awful font treatment given to the title).

  Ethan Anderton at Firstshowing.net called it “dark but not thrilling.”149 Christopher Rosen II at Movieline suggested that the “JCM” logo should stand for “Just Confused Marketing.”150 As for viewer comments, this first day round of comments from ComingSoon.net posted on June 15, 2011, the day it was released, being generally representative of the tenor of the response:151

  Jon: Sweet! God I hope its good.

  Qpf9c8p: poster looks great! until i saw the Disney logo

  Bob: Might as well be a GAP ad. Seriously, what's the point? The poster is just as bland as the film's new title.

  ST: the poster is bland like the title just like Bob said.

  MDWarrior: Eh, it's alright. If they took the "Mars" out of the title and left the John Carter, why is the "M" still on the poster? It's just going to confuse people.

  Starcream: W/ the Disney logo, a shirtless Taylor Kitsch & just the bland "name-only" title...fangirls are going to think this is a sequel to "John Tucker Must Die.”

  Much better received were the concept art drawings released simultaneously and showing the actual otherworldly designs from the movie. The fact that these art pieces from the movie itself were so well received, while the poster was not, created an opportunity for a course correction that would have skewed the next poster more in the direction of the concept art that was achieving such a favorable reaction.

  This opportunity was not taken.

  At Facebook, the release of the teaser signaled the resumption, for the first time since January 2011, of Facebook updates, with a total of 8 updates issued during the month. Simultaneously (and belatedly), as the teaser poster was released, the John Carter Twitter account was launched. A total of 9 tweets were released between June 15 and June 30. By June 30, John Carter had 40 followers on Twitter. By contrast, John Carter’s main competition, The Hunger Games, released 40 tweets during the period 15-30 June.

  More importantly, The Hunger Games had launched its Twitter account 7 months earlier in December 2010 and by June, when John Carter was launched and was just getting its first followers, had over 50,000 followers.

  Was the fact that John Carter lagged behind in Social Media as of June 30, 2011, 9 months prior to release, a “fatal flaw” in the online component to the promotional campaign?

  Not necessarily. As will be shown, there are examples of successful Twitter campaigns -- notably Disney’s own The Avengers -- who launched as late as 5 months prior to release.

  But in the case of John Carter, the question arises: Disney obtained the property in 2007 and greenlit
the film for production in 2009. It was widely understood that, while the books had been in print continuously for 100 years and had been a key inspiration for everyone from Carl Sagan to George Lucas and James Cameron -- they did not have a large, active, current fan base like, for example, The Hunger Games or the Twilight Series, or The Avengers for that matter. Logic would dictate that a 250M tentpole film in John Carter’s position would need to “try harder” than the established competition with built-in audiences, but the opposite seems to have been true.

  Indeed, if anyone could afford to be lax in a situation such as this, it would be The Hunger Games. Given the immense current popularity of the Suzanne Collins books and the relatively low cost of production -- at $80M roughly 1/3 that of John Carter -- Lionsgate might have assumed that it could “coast” in the early phases of its campaign; but it did the opposite. It got its campaign started in plenty of time; it attended to it diligently and creatively, and by June 30, 2011 was already establishing a lead of devastating proportions over Disney and the hapless John Carter.

  The Teaser Trailer

  By the time the first trailer for John Carter was released on July 14, 2011, theatrical movie marketing had evolved to the point where a trailer debut was considered a major event among the universe of fans and influencer media who established the “buzz” for an upcoming. For example, the release of the Lorax trailer caused it to spike from an IMDB MovieMeter ranking of 2,464 to 274. In the case of John Carter, the release of the first trailer caused a spike from a rank of 1,355 to 190. IMDB Pro monitored eight article placements about the movie the week before the trailer; the week of the trailer’s release, this spiked to 130 articles.152