Studios have stopped hiding their movies from critics for the most part, at least to the extent I have stopped wondering when, or if, films will be screened for critics. Of course, there are still a few movies I wonder about from time to time, but it has been a while since I had to ask whether a film was screening or not. Such was the case this morning with Shark Night 3D.
I had already learned Apollo 18 would not be screened for critics this week, but it wasn’t until a few hours ago that I realized I had also not received an invite for Shark Night. The reason was obvious, but I felt I had to ask nonetheless. The answer, nope, it isn’t screening.
I would like to say I’m not surprised Relativity has decided not to screen Shark Night, but I actually am. Perhaps they’re assuming they can do what Dimension did with Piranha 3D, which is to not screen it for critics, have critics see it on their own and score largely positive reviews. Piranha 3D holds a 75% RottenTomatoes score and to my knowledge didn’t screen early for any critics (or maybe the trades got to see it early, I can’t remember). Does Relativity think lightning will strike twice?
The only problem I saw with Shark Night, if I were to judge a book by its cover, is that it’s rated PG-13, a rating that may work for horror films, but when the attraction would appear to be the many sharp teeth of a shark clamping down on their unsuspecting victims as the predatory fish invade a Louisiana lake, I would think people want to see blood and guts.
When it comes to Apollo 18, I have to assume Dimension believes they have a film that’s D.O.A. Apollo 18 has bounced all around the release calendar from March 4 to April 22 to January 2012 and finally back to this weekend, September 2. I don’t know about you, but that looks like a studio that’s rather indecisive about their latest release.
Fortunately for them, Apollo 18‘s alien conspiracy theory at the core of the found-footage feature is giving the film something to hang its hat on. I know personally, this site has seen a large interest in an article I did back in December 2010 headlined “‘Apollo 18’ Aims to Open Up an Alien Conspiracy… Is It Real or is It Fake?” So some people are seeing the trailer and have found some kind of interest. The question is will that be enough to score at the box-office?
On Sunday, I asked readers what film they thought would win this weekend’s box-office as The Help goes for three straight weeks at the top and again faces weak competition. Considering Irene held East Coast moviegoers from theaters last weekend, this weekend may see a bump, but will it be Apollo 18 and Shark Night 3D that they go see? There won’t be any advance buzz from the online sect, so they’re going to have to hold on for word-of-mouth buzz. Will it work?
I will say this, Samuel Goldwyn isn’t keeping A Good Old Fashioned Orgy from critics as I just got out of a screening and can tell you now… it’s a surprisingly fun film.
