Here’s one you probably saw coming: Lionsgate isn’t screening Disaster Movie for the press. Or rather in their words, “at this time there are no plans for press screening.”
Why should you care whether a bunch of pampered film critics get to see a movie early? Because when a studio says it’s not screening a movie for the press, what they really mean is that they’re hiding it from them. It’s an admission that even they know the movie is bad, and their only chance to make some money off it is to slip the pic out there without reviews in the hopes that they can lure a few people into buying tickets before the buzz about its awfulness starts to circulate.
It’s interesting the way studios use the no press screening tool. In 2007 it was all the rage, and nearly every week there was at least one movie that some studio was trying to hide from the press. It happened so much that eventually audiences got wise to it and started to realize that any movie which they didn’t see reviews of probably wasn’t worth their time. So this year they’ve reverted back to taking their chances with reviewers, even on most of the biggest stinkers. When audiences are hip to what you're doing, bad publicity is better than no publicity at all.
In the case of Disaster Movie, Lionsgate is hoping they can pull a fast one on you. Anyone who shows up to see it deserves what they get though, the trailers make it pretty obvious how much this thing sucks. You don’t need a review to tell you to avoid it, though it’s kind of a shame we won’t get many of them. That title is just begging to be made fun of.
