By Scott Bowles, USA TODAY
The problem with naming your film Snakes on a Plane is that if the movie goes belly up, that great title suddenly becomes a liability.
After the movie's $15.2 million debut last weekend, pundits had a field day: "All hiss and no bite." "Stirred, but not snakin'."
Such were the fortunes of Snakes, a film that had all the ingredients of a hit — except the moviegoers.
Still, executives at New Line Cinema, which distributed the movie, say the news wasn't all that bad. The $30 million horror film took in about half its cost on opening weekend, a respectable haul for most movies.
But they also concede that expectations outpaced their ability to deliver what many in the industry were expecting: a runaway hit powered by frenzied Internet fans.
"Maybe in a few days we'll gather to discuss what went wrong," says David Tuckerman, the studio's distribution chief. "Really, I don't know what that would be. I can't think of anything we would do differently."
Some moviegoers can.
Online fans of the film are hoping Snakes becomes a midnight favorite, or a cult sensation on DVD. Scores of websites offer movie scripts and shout-out lines for fans who seek a Rocky Horror Picture Show-type participatory experience.
"The best thing New Line can do is simply to leave Snakes alone and recoup their money on DVD, and I can almost guarantee that Snakes will have a shelf life of two or three decades," says Dustin Rowles, 31, the Ithaca, N.Y., publisher of the film review site Pajiba.com.
"Thank God it was a box-office failure over the weekend," he says. "A bigger draw would almost have certainly killed its cult value."
New Line isn't ready to give up on the movie, however. The studio launched a new round of television ads featuring positive reviews and audience reaction shots.
"It could have a strong run through the rest of summer," says Rolf Mittweg, New Line's chief of worldwide distribution and marketing. "The audience reaction has been great. That's the most powerful medium for film going."
Mittweg concedes the studio learned a few lessons about cyberspace. "It's hard to quantify how many people who are on the Internet go to the movies," he says. "The Internet users, the people who would create this kind of hype, are a very fickle part of the audience. We're still trying to learn what they want."
Even if studios find out what that is, it's no guarantee of success, says Brandon Gray of Box Office Mojo. He wonders whether Hollywood and the media have bloated expectations from online fans.
"There's a difference between a cult following and a real movement," he says. "Serenity, Team America, any Kevin Smith film all have devoted Internet followings. But that doesn't mean there are enough fans to turn it into a hit, let alone a blockbuster."
1 comment:
Maybe it was because they upped the rating to an R and none of the internet fans were old enough to get in.
There were any number of places they could have beefed up the substance of that flick, but didn't.
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