Hollywood Insider discovers what most of us already know: Fanboys are in revolt over 20th Century Fox’s legal brawl with Warner Bros. over the movie rights to Watchmen.
Some are even threatening to boycott Fox films like The Day the Earth Stood Still and, yes, even X-Men Origins: Wolverine. Of course, we know that won’t happen: Come May 1, they’ll be lined up to watch a sideburned Hugh Jackman pop his claws.
But what of the idea proposed by commenters at Comics2Film to hurt Fox by pirating Wolverine? Eh, probably not a very good, or effective, plan.
“It’s hard to imagine a boycott or a digital pirate attack could significantly skewer Wolverine’s prospective box office, even if they did actually come to pass,” writes Hollywood Insider’s Jeff Jensen. “Fanboys are pretty amped for Jackman’s franchise bid — the trailer Fox showed at Comic-Con killed — and a vast majority of geeks probably shy away from doing anything that will rile up a small army of Fox lawyers armed with court orders.”
As I posted earlier this morning, all of this uproar is likely for nothing. Sure, Fox may say it wants to prevent the release of Watchmen, but that’s not necessarily what it means. Money — lots of money — talks.
“The bad news is that it’s going to be an arduous process,” entertainment lawyer Dinah Perez tells Underwire. “The good news is that Fox and Warner Bros. have until March 2009 (Watchmen’s current release date) to figure it out and come to a settlement.”
August 20th, 2008 at 11:45 am
Jeezus, they should be boycotting The Day the Earth Stood Still on principle that it looks like a terrible remake of a truly excellent movie. Forget the release rights struggle — the remake is the real tragedy!
August 20th, 2008 at 12:05 pm
Oh noes, people are going to pirate the Wolverine movie!! Imagine if there were free pirated copies of The Dark Knight online? It would have never made so much money…
Wait… what? Torrents, what’s that?
August 20th, 2008 at 2:49 pm
This just in: If you want to pressure a company, you boycott their advertisers.
August 20th, 2008 at 3:30 pm
If Wolverine is anything like X-Men 3, you can count me out of viewing it. X-Men 3 sucked. Hard.
August 20th, 2008 at 4:48 pm
Jake: What if the company doesn’t have advertisers? What if they ARE an advertiser?
Fox has the Fox network, obviously, but they’re also a movie studio (and a book publisher and they release music and put out video games and make missile guidance systems for NATO and so on). It’s the movie studio that’s asking for the injunction in this case. Movies do have product placement, of course, and tie-ins, but they try to make a portion of their revenue from simple theatrical exhibition.
In any case- it does kinda suck that the lawsuit is happening now that the picture’s been made, and I’d like to see it released somehow, but I haven’t actually looked at the details of the case, so can we tell that Fox is in the wrong? Maybe WB assumed they had the rights to the movie because they owned DC and didn’t do due diligence. Or maybe they did and Fox is full of it. It’s kind of foolish to support one big faceless media corp over another just as a kneejerk response.
August 20th, 2008 at 6:23 pm
Fox is just piss off that TDK grind the reboot of the X-files franchise.
Boycott Fox they’re acting like A-holes. They want money. Fine, but to prevent the film from getting release. That’s a huge HELL TO THE NO!
August 20th, 2008 at 9:39 pm
BOYCOTTING The Day the Earth Stood Still should be done, should work !!!!! and nobody would miss a thing ( looks bad) and we would all say its in the name of Watchmen ( getting even MORE publicity for W movie!!)
August 21st, 2008 at 9:06 am
Evan: 20th Century Fox is a division/studio of Fox. I think what you typically see in a boycott is an attempt to leverage top-down pressure (redirected from the company’s displeased advertisers). Something like: Mothers-Up-In-Arms refuses to buy Scenty DishSoap because Mammoth Uber Co.s boutique division Deviant Films made an arthouse flick that questioned the divinity of Jesus. Deviant Films could only benefit from the publicity, but Mammoth Uber Co. is pissed because Scenty DishSoap is pissed, etc. Always go for the biggest wallet.
Do I think a boycott is a good idea? From all accounts, the movie appears to be shaping up nicely, but I don’t know if I care enough to invest my interest in the legal tussles of ginourmous entertainment conglomorates.
August 21st, 2008 at 10:14 am
I think I’ll go see the Wolverine movie now, just because of this.
Anyone who is working to prevent the imbecilic butchery of one of comics greatest masterpieces by hollywood nimrods deserves support, even if their motives are, perhaps, predatory.
Go Fox! Viva The Mad Moore!