Screwed by the Network/Film

Everything About Fiction You Never Wanted to Know.


Examples of Films that were Screwed by the Network include:

  • The fantasy/comedy film by Terry Gilliam The Adventures of Baron Munchausen is a rather infamous example of this. The original distributors were bought out by Sony who dumped it into 117 theaters and gave it next to no publicity and as such made only $8 million against a $46 million budget. Ironically, it was nominated for multiple Academy Awards and was a huge critical success, and today is considered one of Gilliam's best films.
  • The 1992 slapstick comedy Brain Donors (a Marx Brothers homage film -- actually a remake of A Night at the Opera -- starring John Turturro) was originally produced by David and Jerry Zucker as Lame Ducks for Paramount. However, when the Zuckers left for another studio, Paramount scrapped the planned publicity campaign, changed the title, and withdrew the film after its initial screenings. It sank into obscurity and has since developed a cult following due to the VHS/DVD releases.
  • The indie horror film All the Boys Love Mandy Lane got screwed out of an American release when the Weinstein Company, which had spent three million dollars for the rights to it, suddenly canceled its planned 2007 release after seeing the disappointing box office returns of Grindhouse and other horror films early that year. The proceeded to sell the rights to Senator Entertainment US, which has since gone out of business, leaving the film in limbo. To this day, it has not seen the light of day in America outside of bootlegs and festival screenings, and until somebody takes care of the legal mess the film is in, it's unlikely that it ever will. Fortunately, this tale has a Bittersweet Ending — the film was released in Britain, where it proceeded to make back its budget two-and-a-half times over.
  • Fox is rather infamous for this in film as well as television. Some examples include:
    • Tigerland: dumped into 5 theatres with no advertising.
    • Ravenous: dumped into 1,000 theatres with limited advertising (and mismarketed as a teen-oriented horror film).
    • Idiocracy: dumped into 100 theatres with no advertising (due to studio politics and choosing to promote The Marine instead).
    • Perfect Creature: dumped into regional release for one week and then released straight-to-DVD.
    • Sunshine: dumped into 500 theatres after one week of successful limited release and left to die against The Simpsons Movie (Fox apparently did this as they didn't like the international numbers).
    • Babylon A.D.: taken away from the director, heavily re-edited and released with limited marketing to poor numbers (the director and star later disowned the film).
    • Whip It: dumped into under 2,000 theatres as Fox spent more time promoting Jennifer's Body (also Fox only sneaked the film to bump up the latter's numbers).
    • Fantastic Mr. Fox: released on Thanksgiving weekend with almost no marketing whatsoever and died against New Moon and The Blind Side.
    • 127 Hours: dumped by Fox in favor of Love and Other Drugs due to uneasiness over the film's content. Sabotaged again after Oscar announcements when Fox announced the DVD release two days before a hastily scheduled wide release. However, the film has managed to be a hit in the UK (where it was distributed by Warner Bros.)
    • The Big Year: dumped by Fox despite having three bankable names in the lead roles, an established supporting cast and a director whose last two films grossed over $100 million. The studio also released a trailer that misrepresented the plot of the film and had almost no promotion done for it.
  • Here is one infamous example not from Fox: |Mission: Impossible II was taken away from Director John Woo and was heavily re-edited as studio executives were skeptical on the elements of the film. It believed that Woo had been locked out from the editing room to prevent him from interfering with their changes.
  • Dimension Films does this more then any other film company -- they chopped 20 minutes off of The Crow: City Of Angels (most of which were character development scenes and very important plot points), then they released Crow: Salvation Direct to Video after poor test screenings, they cut the planned 2000+ screen wide release of Equilibrium down to less than 300 screens because the film was already in profit from international distribution deals and spending money on additional prints or advertising might have ruined those profits, they shelved films like Texas Rangers and My Boss's Daughter for over a year with little explanation. Some films, like Venom and DOA: Dead Or Alive, were barely advertised at all and given a very limited release. And releasing Scream 4 during the Easter period while all the others were kept for winter (and notably giving it little publicity outside North America - tellingly, this was the only film of the series where none of the cast did any British promotion, although Hayden Panettiere did go to Germany for that purpose)? Bad move.
  • Disney released the remake of Winnie the Pooh on the same weekend of the final Harry Potter, leading some to suspect that its poor showing would give them further reason to shelve 2D animation films for good.
    • It probably won't kill 2-D animation since it had a low budget (only $30 million, compared to Tangled and its $260 million budget) and will more than likely break even on DVD. The reason for Disney's bleak outlook on the film was actually due to its disappointing international numbers (where it flopped against Rio and Hop) and because other Pooh movies haven't fared well theatrically (but did nicely on DVD).
  • Attack the Block has been dumped into just 11 markets with almost no advertising by Screen Gems despite having mostly excellent test screenings and word-of-mouth. Supposedly, Screen Gems wanted to build Paranormal Activity-esque hype on the film but their choices of theatres has been completely random and entire markets have been shut completely out on the film. There is also no website that lists when theatres will be getting the film.
  • Trick 'r Treat was supposed to come out in theaters October 2007. It got dropped from Warner Bros' schedule, with the guesses being either Warner didn't want it to compete against Saw IV, or they were upset with Michael Dougherty for the poor box office on Superman Returns. It eventually got put out on DVD in October 2009.
  • Postal, Uwe Boll's film based on the video game, was originally scheduled to be released in 2007, then pushed back to 2008. Three days prior to the U. S. premiere date, its theatrical run was reduced from 1,500 screens to 21. In addition, it was opened against Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull. To say it was buried at the theatre is a gross understatement.
  • Paramount did this to Hugo after picking the film from Columbia (due to the film's producer/co-financer wanting to open the film on Thanksgiving and Columbia wanting Arthur Christmas for that spot). Examples include: mismarketing the film as either a comedy or an Inception-style thriller, barely marketing the film before the release, reducing the film's theatre count from 3,000 theatres to just 1,200 a week before opening and choosing to go with a quiet expansion rather than spreading awareness. Not even the film's massive critical acclaim and awards nominations and wins helped Paramount change their minds.
  • Paramount also did the same thing to Tintin in the US by choosing to open the film on the same day as the expansion of |Mission: Impossible: Ghost Protocol. While Mission: Impossible got trailers months in advance, a large IMAX push, heavily-promoted advance screenings and deluxe treatment by Paramount, Tintin was treated as an afterthought with a light marketing push, limited awareness and Paramount having IMAX cancel evening showings on their screens. All despite having none other than Steven Spielberg as the film's director and the premiere of the trailer for The Hobbit on select prints. As a result, the film got outgrossed on opening day by the third Alvin and the Chipmunks movie (which has been considered a flop by many box office pundits).
    • Now Paramount screwed over G.I. Joe Retaliation by postponing it until March 2013 (after two superbowl spots no less) when its release date was only a mere month away, not only that, it's getting re-shoots and a 3-D conversion to boot, fans have not taken this well to say the least.
  • Happened with The Iron Giant. When Quest for Camelot was a failure, Warner Brothers studio assumed it was because traditional animation was dead and not because the movie had many flaws. As a result, the studio gave very little advertising to The Iron Giant, making it a box office failure. Ironically, it was met with extreme critical praise, having a 97% rating on Rotten Tomatoes. It did get better treatment for the video release, but the damage was there and the movie didn't gain much of an audience following until later years.
  • Planet 51 was released on the same weekend as Twilight Saga: New Moon, and only made 12 million dollars.
  • Mars Needs Moms was a box office failure, dying against Battle: Los Angeles, Rango, and Paul. Though to be fair it was also extremely poorly received.
  • Midnight Meat Train was supposed to get a wide release in 2008, but Lionsgate only ended up releasing it in the secondary market to dollar theaters on a grand total of 100 screens, and the film didn't even make back a quarter of it's 15 million dollar budget. Clive Barker was outraged at the poor treatment, claiming that Lionsgate shortchanged the film in order to focus more attention of films like The Strangers(which Barker produced).
    • Similarly by Lionsgate, the Miley Cyrus film LOL was also demoted to a limited release after a year in Development Hell. To make matters worse, they released it the same weekend as The Avengers, which had the largest box-office opening of all time.
  • The Mystery Science Theater 3000 movie was given exactly no publicity, as the studio threw its muscle behind Barb Wire. Yes, a film based on a series about mocking B movies was shafted so the studio could advertise a glorified B movie. Can you say "irony"?
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