from Twitter: are the studios trying to kill off indie critics?

Fri, Sep 02, 2016

#9thLifeOfLouisDrax, #Morgan, #CafeSociety: Opening today in UK. I was ignored/told a flat-out No when I asked to attend screenings.

— MaryAnn Johanson (@maryannjohanson) September 2, 2016

I don't know what's going on in London movie PR, but it's getting ugly. It's not just me having trouble, but lots of critics.

— MaryAnn Johanson (@maryannjohanson) September 2, 2016

I will catch these movies this wknd, but it's a big expense. I can't keep doing this, but w/o reviews of wide releases, readers disappear.

— MaryAnn Johanson (@maryannjohanson) September 2, 2016

I suspect that might be the motivation behind this on the studios' part: kill off indie critics or defang them as much as possible.

— MaryAnn Johanson (@maryannjohanson) September 2, 2016

And it might even work.

— MaryAnn Johanson (@maryannjohanson) September 2, 2016

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RogerBW

Fri, Sep 02, 2016 10:29am

Cost-saving of smaller screening rooms, combined with a sense that independent critics aren’t a good use of their marketing budget because they don’t write what they’re told? (To be fair many newspaper critics don’t either, but when I skim even something the Guardian, which prides itself on being fairly anti-corporate a lot of the time, I see a lot more recommendations of big releases than I do on any site run by individuals.)

MaryAnn Johanson

reply to RogerBW

Mon, Sep 05, 2016 11:39am

Cost-saving of smaller screening rooms

No. The screenings are still happening in the same screening rooms. They were almost never full, and they’ll be a lot more empty now.

Danielm80

Fri, Sep 02, 2016 11:30am

Eventually the screening room will be empty except for Peter Travers.

bronxbee

Fri, Sep 02, 2016 9:12pm

bastards.

cinderkeys

Sat, Sep 03, 2016 3:25am

I originally thought along the lines of indie critics not praising everything that comes along, but most mainstream critics aren’t bought either. Smaller screening rooms? Dunno … Are there really so many local critics in even a large city that they have to worry about making the rooms smaller?

It doesn’t make sense and it sucks.