Some movie studios to skip Comic-Con
You ever get the feeling that some companies just want you to show up, clap and then shut up and go home? The New York Times reported recently that movie studios Warner Bros., Disney, Dreamworks and The Weinstein Company are call skipping Comic-Con this year. Why might you ask, well some of the reasons include cost and time, but one of the main reasons is they are afraid of bad press.
We all know the Comic Book Guy from the Simpsons. Well it seems many of these studios see us all just like that. They worry that a bad review or buzz could sink their ship before it even launches. Even Marvel Studios is on the fence about coming to Comic-Con even though The Avengers is set to launch next year.
Many in the industry describe Comic-Con as “treacherous” and movies like, The Dark Knight did well even without a panel at the show so the thinking is they can get away with it. In addition, they hope some of us will do the buzzing for them.
This makes me think about my recent trip to E3. We were asked to be in the audience for the Jimmy Kimmel show. I found it strange that someone for that show would approach us on the street, but we went and it was legit. However, it was a glorified clip show with no guest and even Jimmy looked disinterested, but they sure made the point to make sure we clapped and screamed like we were having the time of our lives. They baited us with the chance to win money, but I knew we would not win and when we did not we were given potatoes and asked to clap and cheer as if we won the lottery. It was quite sad and embarrassing, but all that mattered to them was that on television it looked and sounded like we were happy.
It is true some of us can be hard on movies or dump on them because it is the cool thing to do. However, if you expect us to shell out our hard-earned cash you could at least do the same. We do not want potatoes or a half-assed showing. Give us something to cheer and write about and if there is criticism to be had then so be it. Simply put, if you feel you do not have to show up for the fans then we feel we should not have to show up for you.
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