Even though losing $150m on 'The Lone Ranger' was a painful experience for Disney, it would have felt like eating birthday cake compared to what they had to endure from the catastrophic failure of 'John Carter.' The film with the most boring name in movie history unsurprisingly failed to grab the attention of the public, despite being one of the most expensive movies made at the time of its release, with the budget believed to have been higher than $350m.
Somewhat arrogantly, Disney was already well along the road with plans for a sequel when the first film was released - plans that came to a screeching halt when the takings for the first weekend were reported. When you factor in the costs incurred by mapping out the sequel, Disney was forced to declare a write-down of nearly $200m for 'John Carter,' and left questioning themselves as to whether they still understood what their audience wanted from them.