{"id":1461,"date":"2007-07-16T03:44:00","date_gmt":"2007-07-16T03:44:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/filmchat\/2007\/07\/yet-another-movie-not-screened-for-critics-28\/"},"modified":"2007-07-16T03:44:00","modified_gmt":"2007-07-16T03:44:00","slug":"yet-another-movie-not-screened-for-critics-28","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/filmchat\/2007\/07\/yet-another-movie-not-screened-for-critics-28.html","title":{"rendered":"Yet another movie not screened for critics?"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<\/head>

\"\"<\/a>
It used to be that, if a movie wasn\u2019t screened for critics<\/a> until the night before the movie opened, it probably meant the movie sucked. Now, it might just mean that the movie was made by 20th Century Fox. The latest case in point: The Simpsons Movie<\/a><\/i>.<\/span><\/p>\n

The Los Angeles Times<\/a><\/i> reports:<\/p>\n

Some critics won\u2019t get a look at \u201cThe Simpsons Movie\u201d until three days before it opens nationally, a strategy Twentieth Century Fox is using to preserve the film\u2019s plot from Internet pirates and scoop-hungry movie bloggers.<\/p>\n

The film, which \u201cSimpsons\u201d fans have awaited for years, is set to premiere in Westwood on July 24 with a wide release on July 27. Fox is hosting screenings for most critics and reporters on July 24, 25 and 26.<\/p>\n

The late screening has prompted speculation that \u201cThe Simpsons Movie\u201d isn\u2019t all that its gargantuan marketing campaign has promised. A Fox spokeswoman denied those rumors Thursday.<\/p>\n

\u201cAnybody who\u2019s needed to see the film has already seen it,\u201d said the spokeswoman, who asked that her name not be used. \u201cWe\u2019re not concerned about audience response to the film. The audience response has been overwhelming.\u201d . . .<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Of course, as readers of this blog will know, Fox didn\u2019t cook this strategy up just for The Simpsons Movie<\/i>. The last few Fox films \u2014 including Pathfinder<\/a><\/i>, Fantastic Four: Rise of the Silver Surfer<\/a><\/i> and Live Free or Die Hard<\/a><\/i> \u2014 have all been screened for the media as late as possible, and in Vancouver, the only press screenings I know about have all been either cancelled or held back until the night before the movie opens (i.e. until a few hours before the public can buy tickets to midnight and\/or matinee screenings). And as we all know, evening-before screenings \u201cdon\u2019t count.\u201d<\/p>\n

I have not yet heard about any Vancouver-area screenings for The Simpsons Movie<\/i>, but a colleague of mine in the Washington, D.C. area says he won\u2019t get a chance to see the movie until June 26, i.e. the night before it opens. I have no idea which cities, apart from L.A., are getting the two- and three-nights-before screenings.<\/p>\n

JUL 19 UPDATE: Wow, I just heard that there will, in fact, be a press screening for The Simpsons Movie<\/i> in Vancouver \u2014 and it will happen at least two days before the movie\u2019s release date. Fox has been behaving very strangely<\/a> lately, but at least in this<\/i> respect, in my<\/i> home town, they are finally doing something right.<\/p>\n

JUL 24 UPDATE: I take back the compliment. After spending a few days scrounging around for a babysitter \u2014 a task that was trickier than usual this week, thanks to a music class that my twins are enrolled in, an hour\u2019s drive from home \u2014 I RSVP\u2019ed for the press screening today, and then the publicist got back to me and said, in effect, \u201cWhoops, you have a blog, don\u2019t you? We shouldn\u2019t have invited you to the Wednesday-morning screening. Fox wants critics with blogs to go to the Thursday-night screening, the night before the movie opens, only.\u201d And after I had already arranged the babysitting? \u201cSorry about that, maybe Fox will change its policy by the time their next film comes out.\u201d Unbelievable.<\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

It used to be that, if a movie wasn\u2019t screened for critics until the night before the movie opened, it probably meant the movie sucked. Now, it might just mean that the movie was made by 20th Century Fox. The latest case in point: The Simpsons Movie. The Los Angeles Times reports: Some critics won\u2019t […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1116,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1461","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"yoast_head":"\nYet another movie not screened for critics?<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"It used to be that, if a movie wasn't screened for critics until the night before the movie opened, it probably meant the movie sucked. Now, it might just\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/filmchat\/2007\/07\/yet-another-movie-not-screened-for-critics-28.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Yet another movie not screened for critics?\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"It used to be that, if a movie wasn't screened for critics until the night before the movie opened, it probably meant the movie sucked. Now, it might just\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/filmchat\/2007\/07\/yet-another-movie-not-screened-for-critics-28.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"FilmChat\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2007-07-16T03:44:00+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"http:\/\/1.bp.blogspot.com\/_MwnH1kpbPRM\/RptRMYSGF5I\/AAAAAAAAAb4\/ugMbu4Rkubs\/s400\/simpsonsmovie.jpg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Peter T. Chattaway\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Peter T. Chattaway\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"3 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/filmchat\/2007\/07\/yet-another-movie-not-screened-for-critics-28.html\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/filmchat\/2007\/07\/yet-another-movie-not-screened-for-critics-28.html\",\"name\":\"Yet another movie not screened for critics?\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/filmchat\/#website\"},\"datePublished\":\"2007-07-16T03:44:00+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2007-07-16T03:44:00+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/filmchat\/#\/schema\/person\/5759ddf28b81af08b29eb15b4e071fde\"},\"description\":\"It used to be that, if a movie wasn't screened for critics until the night before the movie opened, it probably meant the movie sucked. Now, it might just\",\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/filmchat\/2007\/07\/yet-another-movie-not-screened-for-critics-28.html#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/filmchat\/2007\/07\/yet-another-movie-not-screened-for-critics-28.html\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/filmchat\/2007\/07\/yet-another-movie-not-screened-for-critics-28.html#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/filmchat\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"Yet another movie not screened for critics?\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/filmchat\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/filmchat\/\",\"name\":\"FilmChat\",\"description\":\"\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/filmchat\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":\"required name=search_term_string\"}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/filmchat\/#\/schema\/person\/5759ddf28b81af08b29eb15b4e071fde\",\"name\":\"Peter T. Chattaway\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/filmchat\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/9c4b809df092b410d749a6995bcf4f3e?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/9c4b809df092b410d749a6995bcf4f3e?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"caption\":\"Peter T. Chattaway\"},\"description\":\"Peter T. Chattaway was the regular film critic for BC Christian News from 1992 to 2011. In addition to his award-winning film column for that paper, his news and opinion pieces have appeared in such publications as Books & Culture, Christianity Today, Bible Review and the Vancouver Sun. He has also contributed essays to the books Re-Viewing The Passion: Mel Gibson\u2019s Film and Its Critics (Palgrave Macmillan, 2004), Scandalizing Jesus?: Kazantzakis\u2019s The Last Temptation of Christ Fifty Years on (Continuum, 2005) and The Bible in Motion: A Handbook of the Bible and Its Reception in Film (De Gruyter, 2016).\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/filmchat\/author\/peterchattaway\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Yet another movie not screened for critics?","description":"It used to be that, if a movie wasn't screened for critics until the night before the movie opened, it probably meant the movie sucked. Now, it might just","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/filmchat\/2007\/07\/yet-another-movie-not-screened-for-critics-28.html","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Yet another movie not screened for critics?","og_description":"It used to be that, if a movie wasn't screened for critics until the night before the movie opened, it probably meant the movie sucked. Now, it might just","og_url":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/filmchat\/2007\/07\/yet-another-movie-not-screened-for-critics-28.html","og_site_name":"FilmChat","article_published_time":"2007-07-16T03:44:00+00:00","og_image":[{"url":"http:\/\/1.bp.blogspot.com\/_MwnH1kpbPRM\/RptRMYSGF5I\/AAAAAAAAAb4\/ugMbu4Rkubs\/s400\/simpsonsmovie.jpg"}],"author":"Peter T. Chattaway","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"Peter T. Chattaway","Est. reading time":"3 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/filmchat\/2007\/07\/yet-another-movie-not-screened-for-critics-28.html","url":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/filmchat\/2007\/07\/yet-another-movie-not-screened-for-critics-28.html","name":"Yet another movie not screened for critics?","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/filmchat\/#website"},"datePublished":"2007-07-16T03:44:00+00:00","dateModified":"2007-07-16T03:44:00+00:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/filmchat\/#\/schema\/person\/5759ddf28b81af08b29eb15b4e071fde"},"description":"It used to be that, if a movie wasn't screened for critics until the night before the movie opened, it probably meant the movie sucked. Now, it might just","breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/filmchat\/2007\/07\/yet-another-movie-not-screened-for-critics-28.html#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/filmchat\/2007\/07\/yet-another-movie-not-screened-for-critics-28.html"]}]},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/filmchat\/2007\/07\/yet-another-movie-not-screened-for-critics-28.html#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/filmchat"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"Yet another movie not screened for critics?"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/filmchat\/#website","url":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/filmchat\/","name":"FilmChat","description":"","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/filmchat\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":"required name=search_term_string"}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/filmchat\/#\/schema\/person\/5759ddf28b81af08b29eb15b4e071fde","name":"Peter T. Chattaway","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/filmchat\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/9c4b809df092b410d749a6995bcf4f3e?s=96&d=mm&r=g","contentUrl":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/9c4b809df092b410d749a6995bcf4f3e?s=96&d=mm&r=g","caption":"Peter T. Chattaway"},"description":"Peter T. Chattaway was the regular film critic for BC Christian News from 1992 to 2011. In addition to his award-winning film column for that paper, his news and opinion pieces have appeared in such publications as Books & Culture, Christianity Today, Bible Review and the Vancouver Sun. He has also contributed essays to the books Re-Viewing The Passion: Mel Gibson\u2019s Film and Its Critics (Palgrave Macmillan, 2004), Scandalizing Jesus?: Kazantzakis\u2019s The Last Temptation of Christ Fifty Years on (Continuum, 2005) and The Bible in Motion: A Handbook of the Bible and Its Reception in Film (De Gruyter, 2016).","url":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/filmchat\/author\/peterchattaway"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/filmchat\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1461","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/filmchat\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/filmchat\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/filmchat\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1116"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/filmchat\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1461"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/filmchat\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1461\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/filmchat\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1461"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/filmchat\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1461"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/filmchat\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1461"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}