Movie Goers Challenge 20th Century Fox to Show The Movie As Advertised

Movie fans have launched a grassroots web log campaign on studios' marketing practices. They claim the trailers shown in theaters and on TV don't always accurately represent theatrical releases. They are speaking out against enticing theater goers with footage that will only be shown in extended home video versions months later.

Silver Spring, MD (PRWEB) January 10, 2006 -– Movie fans are voicing their dissatisfaction with questionable marketing tactics used by 20th Century Fox and other studios. The web log www.showusthemovie.blogspot.com is launching a grass-roots movement to challenge the studios on showing movies that don't always match their advertisemnts. Fox’s Kingdom of Heaven is the current target.

Site content includes links to reviews of the Director’s Cut by movie critics who apparently agree the studio has done an injustice to the movie originally released in May, 2005. The bloggers are encouraging readers to e-mail Fox and demand a wider release of the longer cut in theaters, or it’s release on DVD. They state they also plan to provide visual proof of scenes the studio used to market the movie in trailers and then cut from the theatrical version.

“Watching the trailers and other clips at the official movie website got me very excited to see Kingdom of Heaven last May” said co-blog owner Jane Green. “But when I watched the movie, I wondered what happened to some of the characters and scenes I had seen in those trailers. They were missing from the movie. It seemed chopped up. When Fox released the Director’s Cut in December on one screen, critics’ reviews confirmed my suspicions. The movie Fox advertised turned out to not be the movie I watched in the theater. Characters were left out, entire sub-plots were gone.”

The blog owners hope Hollywood will heed the message that movie-goers are consumers who expect to get what they’ve paid for. Shortening movies to get more screenings per day and more bodies in seats can backfire. “Kingdom of Heaven, if it had been shown in its intended length, could have been an award contender, according to the movie critics who reviewed the Director’s Cut,” Green said. “Instead, the chopped version received poor reviews and didn’t do very well at the box office. If Hollywood hears from enough dissatisfied fans, perhaps the lesson learned will help end the box office slump that has plagued studios in 2005.”

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