Posted by Kevin at 205.147.8.135 on August 23, 2003 at 11:58:44:
In Reply to: The People STILL want Lee for Fletch. posted by polatron on August 23, 2003 at 09:53:37:
: Current voting taken from the Yahoo Upcoming Movies Site.
: Jason Lee 28% (1650 votes)
Okay, so these 1650 people pay to go see "Fletch Won" with Jason Lee (I'd be one of them),
and the movie has an opening box office weekend of about $16,500 - which makes "Gigli"
look like a hit by comparison.
The problem with any interne polling is how marginalized the studios feel the 'net audience
is. For example, if the studios took the 'net audience seriously, Bruce Campbell would be
playing Fletch. And Superman. And he'd be in the new "Star Wars" flicks. And every other
movie.
The fact of the matter is, no matter how vast the 'net audience may seem, it's actually only a
small percentage of the potential audience a movie has when released into the marketplace
(I mean, based on this site, you'd imagine our flicks would gross one hundred million bucks;
but alas, we hit thirty and it's all over). There are a world of folks out there who, believe it
or not, have never heard of Lee. But they've heard of Will Smith, Ben Affleck, etc, etc. And
while having a big name in your picture is no guarantee the studio will even make its money
back (witness the aforementioned much-maligned "Gigli"), historically, it's better insurance
that the movie will earn, based on the following any particular actor has.
So this polling stuff or signature campaigns (and internet signature campaigns are even
more specious, because there are ways for one guy to stuff produce as many names as he
can think up, if it's a name-only document) will mean very little to any studio, unless you
can produce not just one, but TWO million unique, individual signatures with valid contact
information of people who are willing to swear on the lives of their children that they will
absolutely stay away from any "Fletch" movie WITHOUT Lee in it.
Or, y'know, y'all could've went to see "A Guy Thing", or "Stealing Harvard" and powered them
to blockbuster status.
Regardless, there are 74,447 registered users at this site (some of whom are folks with
multiple handles). So let's be generous and round that off to 60,000 folks who would kill or
die to see Lee play "Fletch". Get all their signatures and info, and you've only got 940,000
more people to get before you're halfway to making Harvey Weinstein MAYBE think twice
about casting Lee.