With increasing frequency, Hollywood studio publicists are asked to oversee convoluted games of keep-away.
These muddied-water campaigns of containment are designed to squeeze as
many dollars as possible from first-weekend moviegoers by nixing
advance screenings for critics and thereby delaying the collateral
damage. This past March, a couple of movies shrouded in mystery were the Weinstein Company’s comedy spoof Superhero Movie and 20th Century Fox’s Asian-flavored horror flick Shutter. Both are new to DVD this month, with respective July 8 and July 15 release dates, and the question that arises (besides perhaps, “Are you
desperate enough to rent either one of these titles?”) is, “Did the end-around on critics work?” The answer, in a word, is yes. Both
films opened in the $10 million range and went on to total domestic
grosses of just under $26 million — not bad for a couple of PG-13 rated
titles that cost next to nothing to make and even less to market. On DVD, Superhero Movie and Shutter are the kinds of
movies with front cover artwork that bypasses the glowing review from a
major (or even minor) critic in favor of big-letter “EXTENDED EDITION”
and “UNRATED” proclamations above the title, and a reminder of the
makers’ previous credits down below. Essentially, it’s all about dangling more
craptastic product in front of hungry genre fans, never mind any nuance or the individual merits of a film. For the full read on this phenomeon as it applies to these flicks, from FilmStew, click here.