Disney's "John Carter" a big bomb.

The much-hyped, mega-budget science-fiction movie "John Carter," has officially taken it's rightful place among Hollywood biggest box-office bombs, after Disney announced on Monday (March 19) that it expects to lose about 200 million dollars (USD) on the film.

So far, the film about a former military captain who is transported to Mars, has generated 184 million in ticket sales worldwide. That is far shy of the audience needed to earn back its estimated 250 million production budget, plus tens of millions more that Disney spent on advertising.

With director Andrew Stanton of Pixar fame trying his hand at live action and teen heartthrob Tyler Kitsch attempting to achieve silver screen fame, there were lots of concerns about the film, explained Reuters Hollywood business reporter Lisa Richwine.

SOUNDBITE Lisa Richwine, Reuters Hollywood business reporter, saying:

"There were a lot of red flags from the beginning. For one, there was not a big name star and it was a story that not a lot of people had heard about it. There was a director who was coming from animation to live action and he had not done live action before. There was a lot of question marks about a movie that they decided to spend 250 million dollars (USD) on, which is a big budget for a movie. Plus, they spent tens of millions of dollars more on marketing and that only added even more."

The Walt Disney Co. is well diversified with it's theme parks, networks and other revenue streams to be able to digest the loss and the studio is counting on their upcoming film "The Avengers" to be a hit this summer at the box office.

John Russell, Reuters.