Over the summer we’ve seen a bunch of presumed blockbusters falter after their opening weekends. Brüno was no success (if you’ve seen Borat, you’ve seen Brüno), Duplicity with Julia Roberts cost $60 million to make, but made only $40 million in the US. Land of the Lost, Will Ferrell’s $100 million adventure-comedy, made $49 million in the US. Funny People and Public Enemies also disappointed at the box office.
Former chairman of Sony Pictures, Peter Gruber told New York Post:
“You look around the theatre and can see the glow, not on people’s faces from watching the movie, but on their chins - from the BlackBerrys and iPhones. They are immediately telling their friends whether it’s worth their time. And the answer to that, more often than not, seems to be no.”
The movie business is obviously afraid of a merely 140 characters and perhaps with a good reason. Before the end credits are done rolling I can tell my tweeps if I recommend the movie or not.
So what does this mean for the movie industry? Make better movies. Now it doesn’t take a week or two before the word about a bad movie spreads, it takes a few hours on Twitter.
Have you avoided a movie because someone on Twitter said it was bad? Do you think Twitter is killing Hollywood?
Update: Dan at minute44.com has some really good points.
Source: Daily Telegraph
Mon, Aug 24, 2009
News, Twitter, Web 2.0