More movies that were not screened for critics!

The cold shoulder returns!

Earlier this year, the studios released one major film after another without screening them for critics first.

But then came the month of May, and the onset of all those major summer blockbusters, and once again the studios were nice to us; with movies that big, there was nothing to gain by alienating the press and generating bad word of mouth, and there was really nothing to lose, either, because the marketing campaigns for all those films were so huge, we couldn’t make that big a dent.

Now, however, we are in the dog days of August, and this week, not one but two movies are being released without being screened for critics — said films being Zoom and Pulse. Well, okay, to be fair, there will be a press screening of Zoom here tomorrow morning, but it will be coming to an end right around the time the matinees start for the paying public, so that doesn’t really count.

And of course, next week there will be Snakes on a Plane. A press screening for that film was actually scheduled a few weeks ago here in Vancouver, but then it was cancelled, and then there came word that the media would not get to see it in advance at all.

So, it would seem we are back to the new business as usual.