At the premiere for Zack and Miri Make a Porno, executive producer Harvey Weinstein talked to Bill Higgins from Variety and had this to say about how difficult it’s been promoting the movie:
Aside from billboards and TV stations that won’t accept “porno” in ads, Weinstein said, “It’s a mountain to climb with female audiences. It’s a controversy we didn’t want. We wanted a mainstream Seth Rogan/Elizabeth Banks movie.”
To which I call bullshit, especially after reading director Kevin Smith’s quote from the after-party in the same article: “Harvey greenlit the movie on the title.”
Did it ever occur to anyone at the studio to think about the marketing problems and devise a way to work around them without compromising the identity of the film, like, the instant you signed the contract?
Also? Can you please stop talking about the “female audience” like we’re one big hive vagina who only likes sweet romantic comedies, Broadway musicals, and love stories? Alright, I do like those things, but I also like kick-ass fight scenes, watching buildings get blown up, sword fights. Oh, I could go on this topic for days…
The sheer obliviousness of some Hollywood executives makes me wonder if we’re even living in the same society.
Mike says:
“hive vagina”…I wish you could see the smile on my face. My co-workers are going to wonder what drugs I’m on. That concept is beyond funny! Thanks!
Pedro Steckecilo says:
I dunno, the idea of all the women I know fused into some sort of vaginal hive mind is truly terrifying, I know some fiery females and combining them would exponentially increase their fiestiness.
Gordon McAlpin says:
Come on, Trish. You’re distorting his point. By saying it’s “a mountain to climb with female audiences,” he isn’t saying that all women think alike (note that he says “audiences” not “the female audience”), just that SOME the movie-going, female public is turned off by the title and/or the premise. And that’s absolutely true.
The fact that YOU like sword fights and shit blowing up doesn’t mean there aren’t a lot of women that don’t like dick and fart jokes, porn stars, and nerdy pop culture references — who, perhaps, want to see that there’s a more substantive story in this thing than just that; or, perhaps, don’t see it at all because they can’t get past the title.
Staatz says:
Maybe you could look at this as a sign of hope. If there are just a few suits that approve a movie because they think it would be *just* offensive enough and not a team of marketing people sitting around a board room over-analyzing every part of a movie for potential marketing pit-falls… well isn’t that a good thing?
Trisha Lynn says:
@Gordon: Then maybe he should have said “some female audiences”. Other than reading comprehension, another one of my biggest pet peeves is when people use sweeping generalizations.
@Staatz: That definitely is one way to look at it, and I think I will be happy that Weinstein had the balls to greenlight the film.
Lethal Interjection says:
Yeah, I remember at first announcement, there were some posts about changing the title. Not really because “porno” was in the title, but more because it seems so “See Spot Run”.
But, yeah, he basically said that the title sold the movie.