Audience-Alienating Premise: Difference between revisions

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* ''[[Dick]]'', a comedy set in the 1970s about two teenage girls who develop a crush on [[Richard Nixon]] and end up becoming one of the major figures in the Watergate scandal. Teens weren't interested in a comedy based around 1970s nostalgia while adults weren't interested in the revisionist history concept (the film also depicts Woodward and Bernstein as a pair of morons) so the film died a quick death at the box office. However, it has become a cult film over the years.

* Martin Scorsese's ''[[Hugo (film)|Hugo]]'', the adaptation of the YA novel ''The Invention of Hugo Cabret''. It's a loving homage to the early era of cinema, but the main character and its intended public are children. No wonder a comedy site [https://web.archive.org/web/20180820052553/http://www.theshiznit.co.uk/feature/if-2012s-oscar-nominated-movie-posters-told-the-truth.php made a doctored poster or it], retitling it "Marketing Nightmare".

* ''[[Freddy Got Fingered]]'', made by absurdist comedian Tom Green, it's about the misadventures of an apparently retarded man and ~~its~~ intentionally offensive and extremely gross antics, that at some point tries to retaliate against his father by accusing him of sexually abusing his younger brother. All of those were obfuscated by [[Never Trust a Trailer|innocent enough trailers]] that toned down the film to mere [[Gross-Out Show]]. The only person that paid something approaching a compliment to this film was [[Roger Ebert]] (yes, the same who said that this film [[Insult to Rocks|shouldn't be mentioned in any phrase related with barrels]]), who compared it to the [[Surrealism|surrealist]] masterpiece ''[[Un Chien Andalou ]]''... a film that drove people out of theaters at the time and even today is extremely upsetting to watch.

* ''[[Freddy Got Fingered]]'', made by absurdist comedian Tom Green. It's about the misadventures of an apparently retarded man and his intentionally offensive and extremely gross antics, that at some point tries to retaliate against his father by accusing him of sexually abusing his younger brother. All of those were obfuscated by [[Never Trust a Trailer|innocent enough trailers]] that toned down the film to mere [[Gross-Out Show]]. The only person that paid something approaching a compliment to this film was [[Roger Ebert]] (yes, the same who said that this film [[Insult to Rocks|shouldn't be mentioned in any phrase related with barrels]]), who compared it to the [[Surrealism|surrealist]] masterpiece ''[[Un Chien Andalou ]]''... a film that drove people out of theaters at the time and even today is extremely upsetting to watch.

* ''[[The Princess Bride (film)|The Princess Bride]]'' title counts for a male audience. The fact is that's a very accessible and funny adventure film that actually isn't that much focused in romance or targeted towards women isn't enough for certain people to ~~overcame~~ its [[Romance Novel]]-sounding title.

* ''[[The Princess Bride (film)|The Princess Bride]]'' title counts for a male audience. The fact that it's a very accessible and funny adventure film that actually isn't that much focused in romance or targeted towards women isn't enough for certain people to overcome its [[Romance Novel]]-sounding title.

* One of the reasons ''[[The Day the Clown Cried]]'' will never be released. Would you watch a film about a down on his luck clown who entertains doomed children in concentration camps? Note that the film that comes close to this premise that actually got released, ''[[Life Is Beautiful]]'', despite its comedy, is a more personal drama about a funny man who tries to shield his child from the horrors of the camp.

* So imagine that you are a director who makes a film about being of mixed race and how it can affect personal identity. You are releasing the film in the 2010s, an era where merely the mentions of still existent racism can make people twitch no matter where in the political spectrum they are. Why oh why do you think that titling it ''Dear White People'' is going to sit well, especially with white viewers? [[What Do You Mean It's Not Political?|Claiming that you didn't intend to make it political]] and that the film is intended as a satire doesn't fly when you give [[Intentionally Awkward Title|such a title]] to your movie and accompany it with a trailer that pushes the buttons of all your potential audience.