Suppposed Failure of "Boys Films"

Another blog entry posted here asked a question of Walt Disney Studios.  "Why can't Disney make Boys movies?"  He was using the apparent box office failure of "John Carter" and "Tron: Legacy" as an example. 

To be fair he isn't far off, at least for the box office take on these shores.  The global market tends to balance this stuff out and having seen both of these movies I really hope they continue with more stories. 

Box office take is by no means a measure of success but it is the primary barometer used to gauge how fearful a studio executive will greenlight the next similar themed feature.  And according to this theory the box office failure of one film directly impacted the future plans of another. 

I think the original blog poster's point is valid but it doesn't go far enough.  Regardless of which studio backs the "Boys" film, these kinds of movies "fail" for one overall reason--the audience doesn't show up.

Now, I'm a guy and I grew up on great adventure stories so consider this opinion incredibly biased.  It perplexes me why a traditional action adventure tale doesn't resonate with an audience as much as it does.  Let me use John Carter as the current example for illustration purposes.

First of all, this movie does a fantastic job keeping everything about the original 1916 novel intact while modernizing a handful of things.  The biggest differences being they introduce a foe (who appears in later novels I'm told) that attempts to give a plausible explanation for Carter's transportation to Mars and give a science background to Dejah Thoris.  What's cool about this version of the saga is they keep all the period details intact.  It's fun to spot all that's been stolen from this story by modern filmmakers. 

Special effects are convincing and the action is well choreographed.  Casting is a home run.  Carter and Thoris have a convincing romance that is improved upon from the novel without losing the spirit of these characters.  There's humor without being stupid because it grows out of the situation.  In short, there's a little bit of everything I love when I witness the execution of a good story.

A family film, and by extension a boy's story, should appeal to the most audiences because they work very hard to walk a thin line between being exploitative and bland with objectionable content.  John Carter gets this right, including a moral center that doesn't hit you over the head with its message.     

I can't answer with any certainty why this film and others like it don't pull in the business but I can tell you three different theories.  The first theory is families don't go to movies in great numbers.  What's on screen is part of the problem as different people have different tolerances for what they want to be exposed to.  But the other part is simply economical.  The second theory is when girls go to movies they tend to go multiple times and they go in packs with their friends.  The final theory (one of my own) is boys don't go to movies unless they cross a few lines that films of this calibre typically don't. 
   
Sequels have been bankrolled despite an apparent failure on the first run.  (The Hellboy series is a good example, cited above).  Hollywood has a long memory and I hope they adapt more books in this series.  Edgar Rice Burrough's creations will always be available in printed form.  But there's something sublime of seeing a filmmaker's interpretation of material both literal and inspired.