L.A. Times writer Deborah Netburn has asked editors of some of the top geek sites if Snakes on a Plane (New Line, 8.18) is coming out past its hip prime. I thought this was a settled issue. Of course it’s coming out too late as far as the hip online community is concerned. Thing is, the 100% support of this crowd isn’t enough to make Snakes a serious hit.
To broaden general interest levels New Line Cinema began in June tand July to reach out to the less-hip, the squares, the newspaper readers, the slow-on-the-pickups — in effect dumbing down the ad campaign.
I’ve been hearing for weeks now that the definitely-not-interested percentage on tracking reports was fairly high — over 20% — but these are primarily the two older quadrants talking. Snakes is obviously a younger-person’s movie. On top of which there are probably a lot of people out there who are squeamish about snakes and just don’t want to see a movie about them, period.
I don’t know what to expect this weekend…yet. I just know that Snakes was cool six months ago, but it ain’t so cool now.
Two quotes from Netburn’s piece: (a) “Fact is, those mother-f***ing snakes are getting on my mother-f***ing nerves. And I know I can’t be the only one who feels this way” — Cinematical’s Eric Davis; (b) “They’ve done a pretty good job with the buzz, but because it has taken so long for the film to come out they felt the need to show more of the film to keep people interested. When people knew nothing about it short of the concept they were excited — now they are saying it is a cheesy Samuel Jackson film.” — Dark Horizons’ Garth Hudson.