Monday, February 22, 2010

Could "Alice in Wonderland" be in trouble?

The Red Queen disapproves of this bad buzz.

Please don't let this be true, please don't let this be true.

Source: HollywoodElsewhere

I'm told that certain British exhibitors and theatre managers who've seen Tim Burton's Alice In Wonderland feel it's "a true stinker of a movie...an unmitigated disaster," as one correspondent puts it. "It's no shock that Disney want to release this on DVD as soon as possible. Not sure what can save this though the promotion so far might guarantee it a great opening before poisonous word of mouth kills it."

To which I replied, "Wait...a stinker? Burton might be off his game, but I can't believe it's a disaster...c'mon. Burton is no chump, he knows what he's doing."

To which the exhibitor replied, "Saw a screening last week, Jeff. Will let you wait to judge it but the movie is a mess. No real plot to speak of and some terrible acting from the likes of Crispin Clover. Even some of the CGI is messy. Cinemas not wanting to show this due to early DVD terms from Disney might not [realize] how lucky they are long-term. There was also a screening last week for critics and that didn't go well either."

Vulture reported two days ago that AMC, America's second-largest theater chain, "is threatening to boycott Alice in Wonderland because of Disney's plan to shorten the film's theatrical run. Disney wants to keep Alice in theaters for twelve weeks rather than seventeen in order to capitalize on the DVD appeal of this family-friendly movie about pigs that serve as footrests.

"An AMC boycott would seriously harm the box-office returns for Alice, which would lose revenue from the company's more than 4,500 screens worldwide. And because of that, AMC and Disney are expected to work something out before the movie's March 5 release."

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