Here I thought they were smart, these guys. Surely, they'd expand Hustle & Flow, I said. Naturally, they'd give it an extra push.
No dice.
I disagree with Jeff's assertion that the American public failed the movie. I think the studio (and the marketing department, as mentioned previously) failed the movie. A bad trailer, bad sneak preview promotion (at least in my area), and a LOUSY screen count contributed to a bungling of this would-be hit.
No one threw a phone, no one evangelized a cultish religion, and no one re-cut their ad campaign around an Oscar winner. There were no stupid extenuating factors here, just a dropped ball.
Stewie Griffin: The Studio Nightmare
Family Guy has become a major sensation across the country due in large part to its popularity on college campuses. Late-night cable saved the show and brought it back to a prime-time Sunday slot. Fans rejoiced to hear that a Family Guy movie was in the works. Set to be released straight to DVD, it was to be called Stewie Griffin: The Untold Story. It was expected to be one of the biggest-selling discs of the fall.
/>One of the reasons TV on DVD has become so hot.
Over the last couple weeks, that all changed.
Someone got a hold of a digital copy of the movie, condensed it to CD-burnable size, and started distributing it on the net. The general consensus is that it isn't as good as people hoped, reminding me of all my friends who shelled out for the Wake Up, Ron Burgundy edition of the Anchorman DVD. Huge anticipation and then unmeasurable letdown.
/>"So then the Home Video Executive said to the other, 'We're royally fucked'. What, too soon?"
The movie itself is basically a three episode story arc wherein a near-death experience causes Stewie (the English-accented evil mastermind baby) to re-examine his life. He eventually he sets out to find his real father, unconvinced that Peter is indeed his real dad.
It's entertaining enough that it beats out most of prime-time TV, but honestly, that doesn't mean much when network television is nothing more than eighty reality shows, five variants each of Law & Order and CSI.
Don't get me wrong, fans of the show will love this thing, but the anticipation factor crossed with the "dude, I got the Family Guy movie by being a hacker, like totally and shit" excitement is going to send the profit for this into the toilet.
As soon as suburban, non-technophile dads are downloading this thing (probably already happening by the time of this writing), Fox is dead in the water for making any money off of this. If anyone's listening or cares, the best thing to do would be just release it early.
Those who aren't savvy will be more likely to grab it than they were given two whole months to hear about it being out there, free, and essentially three pretty-good episodes told all at once.
Friday, I'll dig into the touchy area of video piracy and how it relates to college campuses, from the side of the college citizen.
I should also note that I myself did not download the movie in the way many are as we speak/read/type, but watched it in the company of others who had. It's slowly reaching everyone, two to five at a time. Packing the DVD with extras will help, Fox, I promise.