Snakes on The Net Fail to Put Butts in the Seats 580
Lev13than writes "An article in The Globe & Mail discusses the disappointing performance of Snakes on a Plane. Despite extensive Internet hype and unprecedented audience involvement in the movie's development, it barely slithered into first place with a meager $13.8M weekend box office. 'The Internet stuff was just fun that people were having with it, but I don't think that necessarily meant that those people wanted to see the movie... those who had made that decision based their decision more on the traditional marketing than on all this Internet buzz.' Was all of the hype about blogger power just that — hype?"
One more possibility (Score:5, Insightful)
That is, that this movie could have quite possibly ended dead last without the Internet hype. I think the only reason they made anything at all was because of the hype.
Exactly (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:Exactly (Score:5, Insightful)
Naww. There was considerable non-blog based hype. The wacky trailers, word of mouth, etc. I think this movie would have done just as well without the so called internet hype. There's a great deal of over-estimation of the number and influence levels of 'internet people.' Seriously. If all the net-based hype refelected reality then:
Bill Gates would be serving his fourth year in prison.
John Kerry would be president.
Richard Stallman would be on television.
Churches would fold up because of lack of interest.
Anime would be everywhere.
Star Trek would have its own cable channel. Or two.
etc. The net isn't reality. Now Hollywood knows this.
Re:Exactly (Score:5, Funny)
Re:Exactly (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:Exactly (Score:4, Insightful)
Samuel L. Jackson saw this from the beginning - the name made a big difference to the hype surrounding the movie. The name attracted attention, along with SLJ himself, and the internet hype built out of that. From there came the wacky trailers, etc.
I definitely think this movie would have been a bust without the internet hype, because everyone I talked to in line at the "Audience Participation Advance Screening" I went to (at the Rio Theatre in Vancouver) was there because of the internet hype.
How many cheesy action movies that come out these days have people dressing up on opening night and bringing props (rubber AND real snakes, toy planes)?
Dream on man... without the internet, max $5mil gross opening weekend for that POS* film.
*POS, but I immensely enjoyed it!
Anaconda the movie 1997, 2004 (Score:3, Interesting)
Released Movie Name 1st Weekend US Gross Worldwide Gross Budget
4/11/1997Anaconda $16,620,887 $65,598,907 - -
8/27/2004 Anacondas: The Hunt for the Blood Orchid $12,812,287 $31,526,393 $47,026,393 $25,000,000
Totals $97,125,300 $112,625,300 $25,000,000
Averages $48,562,650 $56,312,650 $25,000,000
Re: (Score:3, Insightful)
Re:Exactly (Score:5, Funny)
The legal sysetm tried hard but garbage trucks full of money trump the internet
John Kerry would be president.
Many geeks hate all politicians equally.
Richard Stallman would be on television.
Give it time. It will happen.
Churches would fold up because of lack of interest.
My Level 41 Paladin disagrees with you.
Anime would be everywhere.
Give it time. There's a heck of a lot more of it then there was.
Star Trek would have its own cable channel. Or two.
And leave out SG-1 and Farscape? It's more likely we'll get a Sci-Fi channel. OH WAIT WE HAVE THAT!
Re: (Score:3, Funny)
(Sorry... reflex.)
Re:Exactly (Score:4, Informative)
I knew about the film from Overcompensating.
Re:Exactly (Score:5, Insightful)
We are ten years past the time when "Internet Person" could be defined by the interests and obsessions of the Geek.
Re: (Score:3, Interesting)
Exactly. This is the equivalent of, say, "Faster Pussycat! Kill! Kill!" debuting at Number One back in its' day. Or "Frogs". One favorable thing about "Snakes On A Plane" (SOAP?!!) is that it's a B-movie through and through, but with A-movie values. The extreme example of this is "Independence Day".
Another thing is that a movie like SOAP was marketed towards internet geeks, as opposed to film geeks (like myself), who'd much rather spend 9 bu
Re: (Score:3, Funny)
Re: (Score:3, Funny)
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-Rick
Re: (Score:3, Insightful)
That is, that this movie could have quite possibly ended dead last without the Internet hype. I think the only reason they made anything at all was because of the hype.
Quite a possibility. Keep in mind that late July and August are usually extremely slow months for films, which is why you don't see hopeful blockbusters come out at this time.
These are the slow, lazy summer days for a casual film you may or may not care to see, which may or may not do anything for you. This, IMHO is the perfect time for
Re:One more possibility (Score:5, Insightful)
There are 2 reasons this film was not a total flop:
1.) Internet hype
2.) Samuel L. Jackson.
The Samuel L. Jackson point is important because without an actor so popular and easily parodied on the Internet, this movie would never have generated the hype that it did.
This film will be profitable, which is a lot more than they can say about a lot of the movies they make. New Line needs to accept this windfall and quit bitching about it.
Re: (Score:3, Insightful)
This movie is exactly one of those; just with better filming quality and SLJ.
Re:One more possibility (Score:5, Insightful)
You're missing the point. Snakes is best viewed in a theater. Preferably a theater full of drunk and rowdy wise-asses who are gleefully MST3King every line they can.
Farkers who saw Snakes on a Plane at one of the opening night parties [pootertf.com] or at other midnight showings over the first weekend got a treat. The real test will be whether the theaters are as rowdy at any late-night showings this weekend. If the movie can draw a cult following for a second weekend, audience participation might snowball and take off.
Like the Rocky Horror Picture Show, seeing "Snakes on a DVD" in the privacy and comfort of your home misses the whole point of the experience, which was audience partici-SAY IT!-pation. Like RHPS, SoaP is a "meh" movie when viewed in the privacy of one's own home. Also like RHPS, SoaP was a hell of a lot of fun when the audience is yelling things like "Red Bull gives your product placement wings!", counting down the last few seconds to snakularity, "First one to scream gets it in the tits!", throwing snakes around the theater at the appropriate moments, yelling "snakes on a cart!" when the beverage cart shows up, appending "Bitch!" to some of Sam's lines, and so on.
Re:One more possibility (Score:5, Funny)
The long winter evenings must just fly by.
Forget "The Line"! (Score:4, Insightful)
That was the single worst part of the movie. Just the way the line was placed in the movie (with him saying it to all the survivors left on the plane) was way too jarring. I think it'd have been much better if he said it to himself while hunting around to fix the ventilation system. That would have made those "motherfuckin'"s fit a lot better. ("I am so (*kill snake*) GODDAMN SICK (*kill snake*) of these MOTHERFUCKIN SNAKES (*kill snake*).. on this STUPID-ASS MOTHERFUCKIN PLANE! (*beat a dead snake*)" - something like that.
The rest of the movie was basically a campy variation of the old "aircraft disaster" genre (yes, lest we forget, it used to be an entire genre - which is why Airplane could lampoon it...) mixed with some thriller movie standards (like the amusing kills, the victims you're meant to hate, the various clumsy attempts to create tension with close-calls before the all-out assault begins, etc...)
Re:One more possibility (Score:4, Funny)
It'll be short, Chuck Norris will say "I hate snakes" and they'll ALL DIE.
Re: (Score:3, Insightful)
The hype was all fabricated!
I started noticing a few of the snakes/plane parodies, but I actually didn't see one that I felt was any good. For something that wasn't too terribly funny I did wonder why I was seeing the more then normal chatter.
In any event, I'm not passing around mass paranoia stories, but my gut reaction was this was fabricated crap. After the initial reaction... I moved on to other "funny" crap.
Re: (Score:3, Insightful)
Internet fads don't follow any sort of logic. Something completely inane can flood the Internet for months, while several genuinely funny things are completely ignored. It's like the world's largest junior high school.
August 16th (Score:5, Funny)
It would be handy if the movie included some suspicious bearded character on the plane who in the end turns out to save it Wesley-Crusher style. I haven't yet seen the film, so for all I know perhaps it does.
Re: (Score:3, Funny)
Fortunately Sam L. went to them and said, "I want those motherfuckin' snakes on that motherfuckin' plane!"
When told to watch his language because it was a PG-13 movie he said, "It's English, motherfucker. Do you speak it?"
KFG
The best scene/line... (Score:3, Funny)
It's the scene where a smug asshole goes to take a leak, and is musing to himself about his penis size. (This character is definitely the target audience for all those p3-n15_E3nlaargmt spams you see.) He winds up tinkling on a great big viper. The viper leaps and grabs hold of his crotchal region.
"FUCKING SNAKE!!! GET OFF MY DICK!!!" he screams before succumbing to the venom. That's gotta be a more useful phrase than "I have had it with these moth
Why Mine Wasn't (Score:5, Interesting)
Years ago there was the viral marketing about The Blair Witch Project. I wondered what all the buzz was about and saw it. To me it was money down the drain. I didn't care for it and became a bit cynical about film pushed this way. Now if someone I knew who had similar tastes and saw a film and liked it, which I used to do, I'd give it a try.
Years ago I used to read the Detroit Free Press, which had a little grid in the back, which summarised what various critics thought of films. I learned which leaned most often my way and followed their advice. Most often we were in sync. Now I just chance it, mostly on trailers, of indie fliks. Hollywood stuff you usually get all the good bits and the whole plot in trailers.
Upon Scott Kurtz' endorsement I saw Little Miss Sunshine, which is quite the little gem.
Re:Why Mine Wasn't (Score:5, Insightful)
Well I actually liked Blair Witch a lot, it being one of the only horror movies to ever instill real emotions of fear in me (having been lost in the woods before helped me get into the movie though). Yet I'm still cynical of any attempts to do "viral" marketing or anything of the sort. The reason is because a movie is marketed that way, or any other way, and some other exec says "Huh, they used this marketing technique, and their movie was a success. We should use this technique for our movie, and we will also be successfull." Note the lack of any consideration for the quality of the movies. To them, "grassroots" is just a phenomenon to be exploited for their own benefit. So I never trust them.
Now like you say sometimes I do find people whose opinions I trust. In this sense, I think they made a big mistake by not having pre-screenings for the press. If I had heard the reviews before hand -- which basically say that given B-movie expectations, the film exceeds them -- I may have been more likely to see the movie on opening weekend. "Snakes on a Plane" with Samuel Jackson sounds awesome, but am I going to trust those hollywood fuckers with my $8 based on a name and a star? If pre-release internet buzz had been matched with critical acclaim, then maybe that buzz would have turned into ticket sales like they hoped.
But really this article should be titled "Movie producers shocked to discover that Internet still isn't replacement for real world".
I'll save you all the trouble (Score:2, Funny)
There are motherF***in' snakes on the motherf***in' Plane!
Re:I'll save you all the trouble (Score:4, Insightful)
Soko
Re: (Score:3, Interesting)
Watching this at home is going to suck.
Re:I'll save you all the trouble (Score:5, Informative)
That's your reason. (Score:2)
And that's definitly not enough to carry a movie.
Wrong audiance for this topic (Score:5, Funny)
Then they will post about the virtues of free software... knowing full well that they really mean beer.
Re:Wrong audiance for this topic (Score:4, Funny)
I wouldn't watch that crap if you paid me.
Re:Wrong audiance for this topic (Score:5, Insightful)
-MPAA
Re: (Score:3, Funny)
Internet + Lower than expected profits = Piracy
That's worth a Field's medal. Arrr...
Re: (Score:3, Informative)
Re: (Score:3, Insightful)
Then they will post about the virtues of free software... knowing full well that they really mean beer.
These people argue that copying from people who give nothing away, refuse to allow derivatives and generally try to lock up art with DRM and copyright extensions to avoid it entering the commons is in no way equal to going against the wishes of people who
Re: (Score:3, Funny)
Remember, money isn't the only thing with value.
I don't think this film justifies the amount of my bandwidth quota it would use to download it.
Why yes (Score:5, Insightful)
Re: (Score:3, Informative)
What... (Score:5, Funny)
Hollywood made a serious mistake (Score:5, Insightful)
I know that I don't generally shell out cash for things I'm derisive of, that's for sure.
Re:Hollywood made a serious mistake (Score:4, Insightful)
Maybe you were laughing *at* them, but I'm sure there were still alot laughing *with* them. The people laughing at them were people who took this movie to seriously. The people who laugh with them realized that they weren't trying to make a Ben Hur Epic Movie of Vast Proportions and instead were making something you could laugh to.
Re:Hollywood made a serious mistake (Score:4, Interesting)
Bingo! I have to believe 99% of all the people who passed around the "Snakes on a Plane" meme did so out of a "My-God-this-is too-stupid-even-for-Hollywood" mindset. Does it really surprise anyone that such publicity might not result in blockbuster sales?
I know these Hollywood marketing types are trained to believe that there's no such thing as bad publicity, but this is the second article I've read wondering why the Internet buzz didn't translate into 3. Profit! without either even mentioning the fact that all the hype was based on the absurdity of the film's name.
"No, no, this just proves the failure of the Internet as a marketing tool." Hmmm...then again, maybe it's a good thing for them to draw that conclusion, and keep these clueless asshats focused elsewhere.
Did I read that right? (Score:5, Insightful)
Re: (Score:3, Interesting)
It was the highest grossing movie this weekend, right? First place? What were they hoping for? Zeroth place? I mean really
They were hoping that the movie would make back the 30 million it took to produce it on opening weekend. Instead they only make a measly 13.8 million. For comparisons sake, Clerks II, a movie of limited appeal that had almost no advertising budget made 10 million on its opening weekend (and only cost about 5 million to produce).
The problem here isn't that the movie only made 13.8 milli
Re: (Score:3, Funny)
Yeah. It's too bad that movies don't get more than a single weekend in the box office to earn back their money.
Re:Did I read that right? (Score:5, Interesting)
SOaP, on the other hand, had that bad campy feel, that most people don't like, since they want to take their movies seriously within-genre. Miami Vice was straight action, and advertised as such, while SOaP was... A spoof, of sorts, arguably a survival action flick, it was really just a comedy. Think Evil Dead 2, it looks like a horror movie, but in reality it is pure comedy, without the idiotic Sandler or Farrel jab of making damn sure you know its a comedy at all times ("hey look, this is funny. I pooped myself and ran into a window!"). All the people I know who didn't like it, didn't like it in the capacity that it was a bad action movie, entirely missing the fact that it was really just a spoof of movies like the Poseidon Adventure and Towering Inferno. I think this movie is doomed to be a cult phenomena, and like all cult movies, doomed to semi-obscurity (who watches Rocky Horror, or Evil Dead, or even Eraserhead?)
Yes, it was obscure, but it did make 15m, meaning it wasn't too obscure. Everyone made a buck, everyone got their laugh. No news here, its a happy (and thus uninteresting) ending.
WEll when you think about it... (Score:2)
Despite the hype (Score:4, Insightful)
It was bad to begin with... (Score:3, Interesting)
I assure you that's the angle the producers who are in fear of losing their jobs are pitching right now.
The Theater Experience is Dead (Score:5, Insightful)
Add to that the cost of consessions and the sheer rudeness of humanity (talking to your neighbor, talking on your cellphone, text messaging, kicking the back of my chair) I'm just not interested in going to see a film on the big screen.
So, am I going to shell out big bucks to watch commercials, listen to other people's conversations, and then sit through a B-grade flick? Hell no.
Re:The Theater Experience is Dead (Score:5, Insightful)
Re: (Score:3, Insightful)
I remember being irritated with rude people in the theater when I was a teen. Of course back then, polite people outnumbered the rude ones.
Re: (Score:3, Insightful)
-Eric
Re: (Score:3, Informative)
Funny, according to this article: [foxnews.com]
Of course, if you think that that website® is too libe
You must not have seen this one (Score:5, Informative)
Re:The Theater Experience is Dead (Score:5, Insightful)
Some of the early reviews compared SoaP to a 2000s-era "Rocky Horror Picture Show" for the level of audience participation involved. If you rented RHPS from Netflix and watched it at home, you wouldn't get the same experience as watching it at a theater full of eclectic movie fans.
well yeah (Score:5, Insightful)
when some turkish dude said "i kiss you!" did you want to kiss him?
did watching the hamster dance make you want to buy a hamster?
when cats said all our base are belong to him, did you want to play zerowing?
when star wars kid valiantly fought with canadian air, did you want to buy a light sabre?
did watching jibjab's "this land is our land" change your vote?
no, to all of that
so why would laughing at snakes on a plane make you want to go to the movies?
dumb internet fads are, guess what, nothing but dumb internet fads
they don't translate into anything, excep time wasted at work and school
Re: (Score:2)
well..yea..
Re:well yeah (Score:5, Funny)
-Eric
The marketing was brilliantly hyped. (Score:3, Insightful)
It was....... (Score:2)
Damn P2P users plunder our movie profits!!
Internet is a buzz (Score:4, Interesting)
I given what people expected $13M isn't too bad. It did get first spot, if barely. It will probably still gross more than "A Prairie Home Companion".
I haven't seen it, but I have heard it is better than expected!
Re: (Score:3, Interesting)
What, Their Free Beer Isn't Cold Enough? (Score:2, Redundant)
People never learn (Score:2)
Poof! (Score:5, Insightful)
Re: (Score:3, Insightful)
You read 4chan too?
Umm... duh... (Score:2)
Yes. That's the point isn't it, those bloggers are at home in their parents basements, not out on dates seeing movies.
News flash, couch potatos underrepresented at the Boston marathon...
Maybe if there were some mother******* snakes in the mother******* basements?
"Serenity," anyone? (Score:5, Insightful)
We geeks tend to forget that we are in the TINY MINORITY of the population. Joe Sixpack doesn't hang out on /. and internet fan boards.
-Eric
Re:"Serenity," anyone? (Score:5, Interesting)
Unprecidented? Hardly. (Score:2)
Both movies stalled out of the gate, almost to the same amount. Personally I was a lot sadder to see Serenity do poorly, but I can understand how someone who was really into the whole SOAP thing be dissapointed as well.
There was a lot more depth to Serenity though... not that I have seen SOP t
Not all hype (Score:2)
Not at all. Bloggers have the ability to reach a massive audience, and many actually do. However, it wouldn't surprise me if the average blog reader were inclined to make more info
It did exactly as expected, to be honest (Score:5, Insightful)
I think this counts as the "Howard Dean effect". Prior to one of the primaries, everyone thought he'd come in first, because he had this huge internet buzz. Turns out it didn't matter. Even if it's all of us techno-geeks, we're still a small percentage of the populace.
What Net buzz? (Score:2)
What Internet buzz? There may have been a ton of buzz out there from a handful of people, but whatever marketing/advertising agency that was in charge of making the rest of the world aware of this buzz did a terrible job of getting that message out there.
This is taken in stark
any amount of hype... (Score:2)
My Gut Hurts (Score:2, Informative)
It was hilarious!
I don't like scary movies and I really don't like snakes. A friend dragged me to this movie and I don't know the last time I has such an emotional roller coaster. I was scared (the surprised kind) but laughing the entire film.
I was physically hurting when I got out.
Also SoaP is filled with great one liners.
I can't wait to see Snakes on a Plane on a Plane (in flight movie). That will be the day!
Joel
Was it hype? (Score:2)
Yes.
What the hell are they thinking? (Score:3, Insightful)
We need to advertise this movie. What is our target audience? Young males 16-29... What are they doing? They're blogging! Quick, let's put up a bunch of fake blog sites, seed existing blogs with references, and our target demographic will flock to see this movie.
I dunno about everyone else, but the blog postings touting the movie always seemed like those TV commercials that started using "hip hop" and "street" phrases to sell toothpaste ("It's the bomb! Bling bling! Off the chain!") long after the phrases have become old (and by old I mean that I, the least hip, most geriatric bastard on the face of the earth, finally understands what they mean because I Googled for the phrases and found a Wiki). It's like FoxTV saying "The arrest *went down* on Main St and Lincoln"...
Not over-hype, but over-generalization (Score:4, Insightful)
Not nearly as many as New Line Cinema was guessing, I bet. Even so, SoaP was all the rage for a few months, so it's easy to get into the notion that it was going to be a smashing hit.
But one needs to realize that what you generally see/hear on the Internet isn't necessarily representative of the populace in general. Back in 2004, I was sure that Kerry was going to take the Presidential slot by quite a bit, despite being a Bush supporter (yes, I've realized my mistakes since then). Then Bush barely beat out Kerry, instead.
So what happened, both then and now? A few things.
First, the Internet is a great thing that covers the entire globe. This means that you're going to get opinions from a lot of places whose opinion, frankly, doesn't really matter overall. (Not that they shouldn't state their opinion, but someone from Russia talking about who they would vote for in the American primaries doesn't make a lick of difference.) This residual noise is going to confound the actual outcome to a point.
Second, turn out. While a lot of people say they'll go out and vote for Kerry, or go out and see the movie, that doesn't mean they'll actually do it. In this instance, people on Fark set up SoaP "Parties" for people to get together, drink a bit, then go laugh at the movie. Many of these requested RSVPs, and a lot of the people who hosted such parties said that a good portion of the RSVPs didn't show up.
Third, anonymity and 'fitting in'. People can claim on the internet to do things or to have done things that they will never or have never done. A Bush supporter that is an active member of a website that's predominantly anti-Bush is more likely to make anti-Bush comments so s/he won't be ridiculed. Similarly, someone might say that they are interested in SoaP so they can be part of the online group, but really don't give a damn.
It's the very reason that Slashdot has their little blurb above all polls:
The internet is wildly inaccurate except under the most precise of circumstances and settings, and even then the numbers can be flubbed.
At least this means that we (hopefully) won't see a lot of studios trying to build internet hype, when all the internet hype was created entirely by fans.
Um, someone doesn't understand how this works... (Score:3, Insightful)
Bloggers yes, bad movies no... (Score:3, Interesting)
i'm tired (Score:4, Funny)
Live Rattlesnakes Released In 'Snakes On A Plane' (Score:3, Funny)
I haven't seen it yet. (Score:3, Insightful)
The problem is that the theater is charging $9 a pop, making a night out at the movies for two an $18 affair, not counting the consession stand. Do I really want to pay for a campy movie that I'll be able to rent for $2 when it hits DVD in a few months?
oh, there was a movie? (Score:4, Interesting)
Where do I find this 'hype' stuff? (Score:5, Insightful)
I don't remember seeing any of this 'hype' stuff. I remember seeing a couple of mentions on the web, and then a few days before release I saw some news stories claiming that there was lots of hype - probably fewer than I'd expect for a major summer movie release. So someone, please tell me before I miss the next lot of hype. Where do I see this 'hype' stuff? Is there a 'hype' web site? Is there a mailing list I need to subscribe to? Without it I just feel like I'm not connecting with therest of society.
Live by the Meme, Die by the Meme (Score:3, Interesting)
If the movie had actually been released about 3 weeks ago when the meme was still fresh, I would expect that the internet effect would have been significantly greater.
Anecdotal (Score:3, Interesting)
I just wanted to chime in with my own anecdotal experience about this movie. When the first wave of hype hit me, it was over the title. "Snakes on a Plane? How stupid is that? Samuel L. Jackson is going to be on a plane with snakes. Gee, that sounds great. Bleh." I remember there was even a massive debate as to whether or not this movie actually existed. Everybody thought it was so stupid sounding that it couldn't possibly be a real movie.
For MONTHS, this movie's been flying past my screen as just a big joke. It wasn't until the last two weeks or so that the good news finally started arriving. People went to the theater, watched it, and liked it. I was NOT going to see this movie until a couple of my friends went and said "It was fun in a not-to-be-taken-too-seriously-way". In other words, the 'negative hype' prevented me from seeing it, word of mouth is bringing me back to it. It's a pity, really. The 'get a call from Samuel L. Jackson' bit was pretty cute, but hardly enough to make me suddenly interested in the movie. Snakes... on a plane. BFD. Make it a parody, and you've got my attention.
From where I sit, the movie's lack of phenomenal success wasn't hindered by internet hype. I agree with some of the other sentiment that said "actually, it probably REACHED its mediochre standing because of the hype...". That is, of course, my own personal experience.
Reverent v. Irreverent Community (Score:5, Insightful)
all of its community was built before a single frame was seen.
SOAP was an insipid idea encapsulated in a four word title. Other than that? It was an open canvas.
And the online community ran with it. It made jokes, it made photoshop, comic strips, stupid video, fake trailers, Photoshop Phridays, crap songs. And the convergence of social software just helped fuel it. Blogger, Youtube, Photobucket. In the end 99% of all original content related to Snakes on a Plane was generated outside the official film itself.
Not only that, but SOAP was something you could participate in. 15 minutes in photoshop and a couple of clicks and your picture of Mace Windu sitting on a Dune sandworm with "Yes, they deserved to die and I hope they burn in hell!" written poorly in Pbrush.exe could end up on a dozen blogs. SOAP was whatever you contributed to it. Even academics and culture critics are getting into it. There are going to be papers, books, theories, conjecture. Someone is going to approach it from a Baudrillardian philosophical perspective and say SOAP was the first movie to truly capture the post-9/11 zeitgeist.
Technology and society met at a point where this was inevitable. It just took four little words and an idea that everyone could appreciate the straight-faced stupidity of.
Because of this, the actual frames of the movie are sort of irrelevant. After six months of run up, it was just another signal against the whole span of content out there. And to be honest, it wasn't even as creative or funny as a lot of that anonymous posters came up with.
The movie is what it is: a generic B horror/suspense film. And anyone looking at just the screen will see that. But those who where out there last Thursday at 10:00 in a theater full of high schoolers and college kids hearing the last ticks of summer? That was the real Snakes on a Plane. People hissing, screaming, yelling. It was a truly shared communal experience. The content on the screen was mere pretext. It was a nation-wide community that hadn't been forced down from some marketing firm that went from flash to bang in six months. MTV, Nike, Universal-Vevendi didn't tell anyone to do this. I have to agree with the guys at RuthlessReviews.com, that's pretty heartening.
" Was all of the hype about blogger power just..." (Score:3, Insightful)
However, the real point here is that yes, "Snakes on a Plane" did get plenty of publicity on the Net. From people making fun of an "terrorism" concept that was even stupid for Hollywood; a concept so stupid that even the Transportation Safety Administration won't search travelers for snakes at airports. (as of right now, but I haven't checked the news today)
In other words, "Snakes" got plenty of free publicity and damned near all of it was bad. Though I'm not at all sure if its dismal box office showing was due to free online publicity or people seeing the conventional marketing and coming to the same conclusion as bloggers. . . so stupid that it isn't worth spending $20 to go see.
As an "Airplane" style comedy, it might have worked. Was the studio not paying any attention to focus groups or did they recruit the intellectually challenged on purpose? If they'd figured it out in time, they probably could have edited it into a comedy with minimal reshooting.
The "cult" thing is just starting (Score:3, Insightful)
However, now that the movie is out, things have changed. People were clapping and cheering during certain scenes both times that I've seen it (Friday and Monday), and I've been noticing parts of the film that are perfect for audience participation lines. Likewise, this IMDB thread [imdb.com] has a few gems that audience members came up with while viewing the movie for the first time! After this movie has been out another week or so, I expect to see the last show of the evening populated by people who go there not for the deep and moving piece of cinema, but rather for a new, fun, audience-participation laden experience.
For those of you considering downloading it or getting the DVD, you are missing out. See it at the last showing on a Friday night, preferably at a theater known for a large, loud, youthful crowd. This film is nothing to appreciate in the traditional way, but it is something fabulous and rare... it's a fun movie to see in a theater.
This proves just one thing (Score:3, Insightful)
Now maybe your average person doesn't know all these facts, but they probably saw the film as mostly pointless and stayed away in droves because the advertising let them know how bad the movie is.
Any one care to take bets on how long before the MPAA tries to claim lackluster ticket sales / DVD rentals/sales is the result of rampant filesharing as opposed to people simply not seeing a really lousy film? :)
Re: (Score:2)
With all the T1 lines running through the parking lot, you couldn't tell if there were snakes hanging around.
Re:Mobile Phone Marketing (Score:4, Informative)
As an interesting aside, the caller ID should have been your friend's phone number (or whatever number they entered on the web site). I don't know by what method they spoofed the caller ID - I didn't even know it was legal.