Studios: SDCC is not a must...
- Thread starter Admiral Buzzkill
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Which is not really germane to the question of whether Comic-Con is proving out as a worthwhile place to promote movies. The article goes on to make the point that getting a good reception at SDCC does not reliably enhance the success of a movie either, and that this is as much a concern as bad WOM generated at the con. Essentially the studios sink a lot of promotional money into the event and they're not seeing a return.
Also, a lot of what apparently filters out into mainstream awareness as a result of the CC "evangelists" is "this movie is geek-approved" - hence the anime/ewok comment - which may in fact be a turn-off to a lot of potential ticket buyers.
Also, a lot of what apparently filters out into mainstream awareness as a result of the CC "evangelists" is "this movie is geek-approved" - hence the anime/ewok comment - which may in fact be a turn-off to a lot of potential ticket buyers.
Not to mention people get stabbed during panels. With pens, mind you.
Maybe they could go back to having a comics convention...
Even if they do, fans of this genre (generally the majority of people who go to these things) can be completely unpleasable and piss in the cereal of an otherwise potentially good movie because of some stupid minor thing (such as how a costume looks).
LOL, so basically, the studios recognized "Damn, if we present our shit film at CC, they will recognize it's shit way too soon." and now they simply won't go there.
Certainly true in some cases, but, I'm not sure that's a fair blanket statement, in some cases, the studio may be just showing something very early (Think the Green Latern first trailer and the bashing the movie took, versus the excitement that has now generated with the latest trailers)
I have to agree with Dennis on this. "Kick-ass" and "Scott Pilgrim" were warmly received and they did really poorly in the box office and then there was the whole craziness with "Green Lantern". It also makes a lot of sense since Geeks have a different sensibility than the public and therefore make poor predictors.
Still Avengers come on that should be at ComicCon
Still Avengers come on that should be at ComicCon
Well in defense of the fans, the Green Lantern costume did look stupid. Honestly if fans can't accept it than I doubt the average person will be "welcoming"
Wait, they actually thought that the CC crowd would make for accurate predictions? 
It's the exact opposite. "Scott Pilgrim" got a huge buzz and it failed at the box office. "Sucker Punch" at least the scenes that were shown awed the everybody (to be fair Sucker Punch has some amazing visuals) but the rest of the movie was terrible.
I would say fans actually have a good eye for quality but people don't care about quality these days (*cough* "Star Trek" *cough*).
It was a wee bit naive of the studios to base their expectations on the reactions of a nerd crowd.
[yt]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WXY4hdQB5cs[/yt]
For years people were saying that Geeks were the new masters of the universe when it came to pop culture. I mean look at all the most successful movies and most of them have to do with sci-fi/comic IP.
The trouble is people are DUMB. They are basically sheep that respond to familiar brand names (*cough* Star Trek *cough*). So you can see where the problem lies. Geeks like NEW stuff as well. Stuff that doesn't have a track record like Batman or Iron Man. That's why "Scott Pilgrim" failed it was too new and no one outside of comic fandom knew about it.
That's not to say that Hollywood shouldn't try especially with experimental stuff. What they shouldn't do is bet the farm on Geek love (like they did with "Scott Pilgrim").
Why though? Nerd culture used to be such a niche thing not too long ago and now it's become pretty main stream. Studios today are still somewhat ran by the "old guard" with older sensibilities.
Seems like studios have been looking to the cons such as SDCC, the biggest con of them all, as their testing for early fan reaction. With the fast paced internet age of today by means of social media, information spreads so fast now that bad word of mouth for a movie, can really fuck them over. I think this is them saying they're gonna reel it back a little.
I've looked at comic-con the last few years as kind of an "upfronts" for the science-fiction genre and it's something that has grown too big and too fast. I don't think it was designed as an "upfronts" type thing, but more as an exhibition for comic books. Still, it seems every year the "comic" part of "comic-con" has kind of gotten thrown out the window, so it is a bit nice to read this news. If studios wanted to sell their stuff and set the stage, that's what the "before the movie" commercials should be in the movie theater.
I'd say so yes. I was at SDCC last year and there were panels and exhibitions there that didn't really seem necessary or even remotely scifi, fantasy, anime, etc. centric. It's gotten too big for their britches.
Comics are dying as is. Replaced by manga and video games. I don't mind all the genre stuff like movies because it least keeps ComicCon relevant.
I'm also not that angry at Hollywood. The quality of material we've been getting is incredibly high. What saddens me is that the amount of effort isn't being translated to richly due profits (*cough* Scott Pilgrim *cough*)
I'm also not that angry at Hollywood. The quality of material we've been getting is incredibly high. What saddens me is that the amount of effort isn't being translated to richly due profits (*cough* Scott Pilgrim *cough*)