Disney Studio Chief Out Over John Carter, Was It Really That Bad?

Before John Carter was even released, analysts were forecasting an impending disaster for Disney. The film was tracking horribly, and with production costs alone having ballooned to two hundred and fifty million, there didn’t seem to be any way the studio could even break even let alone make money. Ultimately, those dire predictions proved correct, and now the mess has cost Rich Ross his job.

The executive was installed as studio chief after a successful run with Disney Channel, but according to Bloomberg, loses during the first quarter will likely top one hundred and twenty million dollars under his leadership. As a result, he was forced to resign today and no replacement has been named.

On the one hand, it’s easy to point the finger at Ross given how horribly John Carter went. As the head of the studio, he was ultimately responsible for the cinematic disaster he put out. On the other hand however, Disney CEO Robert Iger was the one who changed the overall model to focus on big-budget releases with theme park and product tie-ins. It was his direction that led to the very possibility of such a huge loss.

John Carter was definitely a disaster, at least from a dollars and cents standpoint, but the question is, was the film and the handling of the film so bad that it should have cost the studio head his job? Let us know your thoughts by voting in the poll below…

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