“It wasn’t totally surprising to learn [yesterday] that Sony isn’t planning to show critics Ghost Rider, which opens a week from Friday,” N.Y. Post critic Lou Lumenick wrote yesterday in his new blog. “The latest Marvel Comics blockbuster starring Nicolas Cage, which carries a pricetag of $120 million, may well be the most expensive event movie movie to receive this treatment, which tends to embarass the talent involved.
“Sony has been in the vanguard of the snowballing no-screening movement, racking up a record string of No. 1 openings last years including a number of (mostly low-budget)films that avoided advance critical scrutiny. Just this weekend, the poorly-reviewed The Messengers topped the charts after opening cold, as they say in the trade.”
