Disney says it expects to lose about $200 million on its 3D science-fiction adventure John Carter, making it one of Hollywood’s all-time biggest money-losers.

The production is estimated to have cost about $250 million, with another $100 million more spent on marketing, and analysts say it would have needed to take about $600 million in ticket sales worldwide to break even – a figure that only about sixty five films a year achieve.

But with negative reviews – a shock, perhaps, to director Andrew Stanton, whose previously won Oscars for Finding Nemo and Wall-E – John Carter has so far taken only about $184 million at the box office, with its main earning window now behind it.

The producers were hoping that the source material, from a series of books by Edgar Rice Burroughs, could have provided plenty of material for sequels, but the poor performance makes this unlikely.

Disney says the losses from this film will cause the studio to lose up to $120 million this quarter, wiping out profits from other theatrical and home entertainment releases.

But the studio is hoping to turn around its fortunes, later this year, with the blockbuster superhero movie The Avengers, from its Marvel subsidiary, and Pixar’s Brave, the closing film at this year’s Edinburgh Film Festival.