Hollywood Reporter: It was pairing with Avengers at 150 Drive-ins that gave John Carter the big boost in weekend Box Office

Hollywood Reporter has solved the anomaly of how it was that John Carter was able to leap from $112,000 box office a week ago, to $1.49M this past weekend, and as we suspected it had to do with the Avengers. Turns out Disney paired John Carter with the Avengers as a double feature in 150 drive-ins, and therein lies the explanation. While not as magical an answer as some John Carter Fans had hoped for — it’s still a good move by Disney and one that JC fans should be appreciative of.

Here is the Hollywood Reporter coverage:

‘Avengers’ Gives ‘John Carter’ a Double-Feature Boost at Drive-Ins

The Disney disappointment zoomed back up the box office charts after being paired with the Marvel blockbuster this weekend.

While most of the world was paying attention to The Avengers over the weekend, fellow Disney pic John Carter was making its own news.

John Carter zoomed up the domestic box office office chart from No. 38 the week before to No. 12 — thanks to being paired with The Avengers at more than 150 drive-ins across the country.
John Carter — which resulted in a $200 million loss for Disney — grossed $1.5 million and was up a staggering 1,223 percent over the previous weekend. The film’s domestic gross is now $70.8 million, while it has grossed $208.2 million overseas. Those are big numbers, but a hefty production budget and marketing spend put Disney into the red.

It’s common practice for drive-ins to offer double features. Usually, however, it doesn’t boost the older film’s bottom line to such a degree. But Avengers did such massive business — the film opened to $207.4 million, the biggest opening of all time –that it made a difference.
The average cost of a drive-in ticket is $8. Studios don’t disclose how they divvy up the ticket sales between two films playing in a double feature.