that little kid's experience." Following the death of Steve Jobs, Stanton dedicated the film in his memory. Effect of other 2011 films' box office Disney reportedly grew more concerned about the film's prospects after the 2011 failure of the Lionsgate remake of Conan the Barbarian. Like John Carter, it was based on a popular fantasy franchise that had during the 1980s been adapted into successful films starring Arnold Schwarzenegger. Lionsgate's version had cost $90 million and starred Jason Momoa. Chabon recalls reading a Quora post by one of its screenwriters, Sean Hood, about how he dealt with the movie's failure, and for the first time worrying about the possibility that John Carter could suffer the same fate. Cowboys & Aliens, released in July, also had an effect on John Carter. It, too, had science fiction and western elements, and while not a failure commercially was seen as a disappointment, barely recouping its high budget. That was taken as indicating that contemporary audiences were not interested in westerns, or any film set in the American past, so those elements would be downplayed in the trailers and other marketing for John Carter. One of Disney's own recent big-budget franchise films was also adding to executives' anxieties about John Carter. The May 2011 release of Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides had done well at the box office, becoming the third highest-grossing film domestically that year and making over a billion dollars worldwide. However, the film's budget, exceeding $400 million by some estimates, made it the most expensive film ever produced. Its profits were thus lower than a film that popular might have been expected to generate, making Disney fear the same could happen with John Carter. By the time of the reshoot four months after On Stranger Tides, it was reported that John Carter would have to make at least $700 million worldwide, more than twice its escalating production costs, to justify a sequel. July 2011 preview screening Initially expectations of the film's commercial success were high. The studio held a sneak preview in mid-2011, before the reshoot, in Portland, Oregon. Stanton, who had been diagnosed with high-functioning attention deficit hyperactivity disorder early in the process of writing the script, was so nervous he took lorazepam not just on the flight there but before the preview, and four Disney executives were in attendance to watch the reactions of 400 filmgoers and