“John Carter” cuts the head off of Disney’s film division: Rich Ross’ Loss. (What would Disney and Burroughs do?) Bob Iger are you listening?
by Dennis Mansfield from DennisMansfield.com
The transplanted Confederate Cavalry Officer John Carter unsheathed his 1860-era broadsword this very day and let the whoosh of his blade sever bone and marrow, muscle and flesh…
And the head of Disney’s film division fell to the ground and rolled in the dust of Barsoom.
Rich Ross resigned today as a result of the Disney film community’s terrible business decisions by failing to promote the film, “John Carter” in a way that it should have.
The loss brought down Mr. Ross.
“The head of Disney film-making studio, Rich Ross, has resigned as chairman a month after the film John Carter became one of the company’s biggest flops.
He revealed his move by email: “I no longer believe that the chairman role is the right professional fit for me.” More here.
Those of us who enjoyed the film and see beyond the foolish and unfruitful way that such a brilliant century-old story (by such an internationally respected author, Edgar Rice Burroughs) was so poorly handled, wish now to know what Disney intends to do.
I have advocated on this blog that Bob Iger, CEO of Disney should gamble in a way that his peers would call foolish – to re-release John Carter this summer in selected markets with a new and vulnerable marketing plan. My Open Letter has been received but not yet responded to. Or maybe it has…
2 comments
Yahoo has a feature mention on it’s opening page about the Ross firing and the fallout. Interesting thing, there are currently many,many pages of comments on the story and they are almost all positive !!
There is an unprecedented groundswell for this movie, we have to figure a way to harness this sentiment and turn around the media perception of the movie from fiasco to winner.
Excellent article. with now until the films Blu-ray release, Disney has a chance to turn things around. And so far it seems that if amazons bestsellers list and most wanted list are any indication, then John Carter might possibly be one of Disney’s best selling video releases in quite some time. All we can do now is hope and keep our fingers crossed!