John Carter is set to record a loss of 200 million US dollars, Disney has announced.
The 3D film, about a Civil War veteran transplanted to Mars and starring Taylor Kitsch, Samantha Morton and Dominic West, is set to be one of Hollywood's biggest ever money-losers.
Disney said the film has brought in about 184 million dollars in ticket sales worldwide so far. But ticket sales are split roughly in half with cinema owners, and the film's production budget is estimated to be about 250 million dollars with about 100 million more spent on marketing.
The movie was based on a series of books written by the late Edgar Rice Burroughs, and was directed by Andrew Stanton.
Disney hopes to overcome the setback with other big-budget movies this year, including The Avengers from its Marvel subsidiary in May and Pixar's Brave in June.
The flop ranks with history's biggest box office disasters, although it's tough to rank them precisely because of inflation and incomplete disclosure.
Disney's eerily-real computer animated movie Mars Needs Moms from last year cost about 150 million dollars to make but only sold 40 million in tickets worldwide, according to Hollywood.com analyst Paul Dergarabedian.
Warner Brothers' Speed Racer from 2008 cost about 120 million dollars, but took in only about 94 million in cinemas. Columbia Pictures' Ishtar in 1987 cost about 40 million but sold only 14 million in tickets domestically, he said.