Snakes on the wane
Why didn't the snakes have legs?
That was the question hissing around Hollywood yesterday as the town tried to parse why the unprecedented hype surrounding the comic thriller Snakes on a Plane failed to jump from the Internet into the real world, leaving the studio New Line Cinema with only $13.8-million (U.S.) from weekend screenings. With an additional $1.4-million from late-night shows last Thursday, Snakes took in enough to win first place in the weekend's box-office race, but the tally was 50 per cent less than some forecasts.
"You ask most movie marketers, they don't necessarily put that much stock in using the Internet for marketing a movie, and this is exactly why," said Paul Dergarabedian of Exhibitor Relations, which tracks box office for the studios.
"People were very aware of this movie," he added. "But converting Internet interest into actual movie-going, as a proven way of bringing people into the theatres, it doesn't really stand up yet." With the exception of The Blair Witch Project, released in 1999, few films have successfully mined grassroots appeal.
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