Mystery: Why are John Carter Blu-rays, DVDs, suddenly “currently unavailable” for pre-order on Amazon.com

Michael Sellers Other Stuff

John Carter fan circles are buzzing over a sudden change in status of John Carter DVD’s and Blu-rays on Amazon.com. The product went online and was available for pre-order for most of this week — but today all John Carter DVD’s and Blu-ray’s went into “Currently Unavailable” status.

Inquiring minds want to know. Why?

UPDATE:  As of 9pm EST on 6 April — 30 hours after they became “unavailable” — they are available again.  No explanations are available yet as to what caused this.

 

 

19 comments

  • I saw the movie 4 times. That’s how much I loved it.
    They didn’t update it or attempt to make it “hip for today’s
    audience”. The amount of restraint it took not to over-complicate the story and visual elements must have been
    tremendous. The result was a breath of fresh air, that brought with it a kind of honesty, heart and wonder I haven’t felt in an adventure movie in years.

    I’ve had very little exposure to the original books, but since the movie, I hunted them down and can’t get enough of them. I’m getting the Art of Book and I’m ordering the 3D blu ray set. My way of thanking Mr. Andrew Stanton for sticking to his guns and for introducing me to ERB’s Mars!

    I hope they re-design the cover art though. Get someone like Drew Struzan to paint it and put Dejah Thoris in there for Frak’s sake! It’s a sword and planet movie, the cover should reflect that!

  • Thanks for the tip Marc McKenzie, I just ordered one. I’ll see if it arrives one day! 🙂

  • I pre-ordered the Blu-Ray/DVD combo pack a couple days ago…still, it is curious about this.

    That said, the “Art of” book is suddenly hard to find, or to buy at a reasonable price. Barnes and Noble’s online store has it listed for $165.00. The lowest price for it on Amazon is $65.00. I eventually ordered it from Amazon Canada, where the price was around $35.00 USD.

    It is good to see that there is strong interest in the DVDs/Blu-Ray editions of the film.

  • The John Carter Art Book is still on at least one Barnes & Noble shelf at regular price of $50 (10% off if you’re a member). There were four books sitting there in the store last night. I bought mine a couple weeks ago. It’s the so-called Livonia B&N on 17111 Haggerty Rd in Northville, Michigan outside of Detroit.

  • It was probably a technical flaw on the website that caused the film to be unavailable at the time. Still, I’m hoping to buy this film on Blu-ray day one of i’ts release!

  • Looks like it’s back on Amazon (at least the 3D Blu — haven’t checked on the other versions).

  • Okay, it’s 9pm Eastern time and JC is available on Amazon again for pre-order.

    That was all too bizarre — why stop sales of pre-order? Anyone got a clue what that was all about?

  • Wow — it’s amazing how fast what little merchandise is available for JOHN CARTER is selling fast. The home video release is already performing phenomenally on Amazon, and the art book seems to have sold through its first print run.

    Disney Movie Rewards is offering a necklace of a small Thern medallion (for 600 points) that is already noting that quantities are limited. I’m tempted to get this even though I don’t wear necklaces — from the pictures it’s a well done miniature version (1.25″ by 1.5″) of the Thern medallion.

    I had no idea the soundtrack was a limited run, I’ll need to order that soon so I don’t miss it.

    Even in the small city I live in, the novelization seems to have sold rather well, the local Wal-Mart may only have about 10 copies left (at least when I was there last week).

  • “It’s not due out until July, right? No matter how badly this movie has been treated so far, I find it unbelievable that there won’t be enough DVDs to go around. Seriously, if that were the case – then it would pretty much seal the deal that this movie was intentionally set up to fail.”

    Exactly what occurred to me as soon as I heard about this.

  • It’s not due out until July, right? No matter how badly this movie has been treated so far, I find it unbelievable that there won’t be enough DVDs to go around. Seriously, if that were the case – then it would pretty much seal the deal that this movie was intentionally set up to fail.
    Honestly, I wonder if the pre-order demand is so high that they think we’re stupid enough to expect it to be available now and wanted to show us it wasn’t? Or was there some sort of experiment to see how quick a response to buy a DVD/Blu-Ray is after a movie opened? Say, if a movie is perceived as tanking, well, just put that puppy out on video right now and see how it sells?
    All in all though, this is just one more incident to show how shabbily this movie has been treated.

  • I went to a Disney store during lunchtime. I remember going at this same store while Prince of Persia was released, it was showcased with a giant poster. For John Carter, nothing at all.

  • The Lorax was released a week before JC(oM), and I’m STILL seeing television spots for it, just saw one this morning. Even if they were going to re-design the cover (it needs a real Indiana Jones or Star Wars [read: Hollywood, hello!] treatment, that’s for sure), I don’t see how that would affect the pre-orders. Heck, that’s just a smart way of doing things to begin with. Make 100K, make 1M… target what will sell. The first one off the line is the one that’s costly. All the rest are profit, really.

    And, if it’s knocking on Game of Thrones, it has to be doing something right, that silly thing’s all over the place right now.

    Honestly, can anyone recall a movie that was treated in any fashion as this? I really can’t. There’s almost a movie behind the movie… hmmm… “Flopbuster, an insider’s look between the ears…”

    … OH CRAP! They’re converting it to black and white!!!!!

  • There seems to be a true effort from “someone” to make everything John Carter-related difficult to find. First the limited edition soundtrack cd, then the mysterious and highly unusual disappearance of the Art of book after only 3 weeks from the release date, now this…
    What the hell is happening? I’m very worried (and I can’t find the Art book anywhere at a reasonable price either, sigh!).

  • Apparently for now you can still order the DVDs and Blus on Amazon.fr but not on Amazon UK.

    That’s odd. And what happens with The Art of John Carter too.

  • This is a weird situation similiar to how not even a month since the movie has been released that the Art of John Carter suddenly not on sale anymore. I went to a BAM to buy it only to have them cancel the order. I’m hoping that buying from DisneyStore.com that they would still have copies left. I regret not buying the art book sooner.

  • Possibly because demand has seriously outstripped planned supply? Demand is very, very high according to this Forbes article (linked in an earlier post):

    http://www.forbes.com/sites/carolpinchefsky/2012/04/02/john-carters-trip-to-mars-is-finally-profitable/

    “As of this writing, the Blu-Ray 3-D/Blu-Ray/DVD/Digital Copy was the #1 selling item in Amazon’s Science-Fiction Movie list, and ranked #2 in the Action & Adventure and Fantasy Categories , behind the Game of Thrones Season One box set. It ranks #13 over all in the Movies & TV Blu-Ray list.”

    Mind you, supply shortages shouldn’t prevent pre-orders…

  • I’ve been complaining about the ape since the first TV spots came out but I never thought of “ape-shit”. Go figure. Perfect.

  • Hopefully it means they’re changing the cover art.
    The current version looks awful! They need to make it classy and beautiful, not ape-shit

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