From Movies online, "In an obvious effort to pull in more at the box-office, studios are being more cautious about what films they have preview screenings for. Without a bad review giving warning to movie-goers they are more inclined to shell out their hard earned money to see movies that even their own studio isn't proud of. Last year at this time, only two movies had declined to give press-screenings. This year however we are up to eleven so far. The upcoming "Benchwarmers" is one of them.
Publicity chief for Disney, Dennis Rice had this to say about the subject: "If we think screenings for the press will help open the movie, we'll do it. If we don't think it'll help open the movie or if the target audience is different than the critics' sensibilities, then it may make sense not to screen the movie." I suppose this would make sense for Disney, seeing how their Buena Vista division's "Stay Alive" was not screened for critics and grossed over $10 million in it's opening week. Afterwards of course the negative reviews started to roll in.
Other movies that did not have advanced screenings include: "Underworld: Evolution", "Grandma's Boy", "Ultraviolet" and "Doogal".
Personally I think that studios are being a little too overly cautious. I don't think it's right of them to deny reviewers press screenings for fear they might say something bad. I also don't see any point to it. I would say that most audiences tend to make decisions by what they see in the trailer. I don't think that enough people actually read reviews for them to make much of an impact. And if anything it's free publicity regardless. Good, Bad, all press is good press.
Hollywood and audiences have their phases. There are movies that are "in" and movies that are "out". Take "Slither" for instance. Good film. Good reviews. But it's a monster film, and it isn't going to do well as a slasher/horror such as "When a Stranger Calls" (despite it's numerous negative reviews) which are more popular with audiences now. That's just my two-cents though. Hopefully our readers feel differently."
1 comment:
There was some movie I really liked that went out with no press screening, but I completely forget what it was. But you're right: that's the exception, not the rule.
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