Going broke chasing boys: Why Disney ditched princesses and spent $300 million on John Carter, and what it means for the Mouse House's core demo.

If you've seen the trailer for the upcoming John Carter, you know that not only does it not look like it cost $300 million, but it so painfully feels like a Mad Libs male-driven fantasy blockbuster that it borders on parody.  It's no secret that Disney thinks it has a boy problem. One of the reasons it bought Marvel two years ago was to build up a slate of boy-friendly franchises.  And the last two years have seen an almost embarrassing attempt to fashion boy-friendly franchises (Prince of Persia, Tron: Legacy, The Sorcerer's Apprentice, I Am Number Four, Fright Night,  and Real Steel), only half of which were even as successful as their alleged flop The Princess and the Frog (which obviously grossed 'just' $267 million on a $105 million budget because it starred a character with a vagina).  We can only ponder the reasons why Disney decided to outright state that they were never going to make another fairy-tale princess cartoon again, even after Tangled became their most successful non-Pixar toon since The Lion King, but I'm pretty sure Disney won't be making such statements about boy-centric fantasy franchises anytime soon.

Walt Disney's Tangled (formally Rapunzel) gets yet another obnoxiously boy-friendly trailer.

Rapunzel is apparently a helpless and useless supporting character in her own movie. She gets maybe three lines of dialogue in the 150 second trailer, with the bulk of screentime going to her dashing and adventurous suitor. At least Rapunzel is uber-pretty, because that's all girls are good for in the post-Princess and the Frog Disney regime, right? I concede that this may not be the movie as it is, but rather what they are selling in a panic over the alleged under-performance of The Princess and the Frog (Oh no! Only $267 million worldwide and the hundreds of millions over the next decade in Princess Tiana merchandise!). But the sour aftertaste that this marketing campaign has left in its wake will be tough to shake. Because even if the movie is more evenhanded (and better) than the marketing, a major opening weekend based off of this campaign will signal to Disney that this kind of gender-blackballing works, and that they shouldn't actually chase the female audience with any vigor.

Scott Mendelson