Written by Joshua Tyler | Published
Foolishness It is now viewed as one of the funniest and most prescient science fiction films of all time. But that wasn’t nearly the case. When it was released, Foolishness It was a huge bomb. And no one saw him, Foolishness It didn’t make any money, and was gone from theaters in less than a week. You know it only exists now thanks to the work of fans and independent publishers.
Foolishness The failure was not just an accident. Despite the Mike Judge comedy’s high potential to be a box office hit, 20th Century Fox decided to squash the film before it even had a chance, and the reasons behind the corporate giant’s decision are likely all too familiar to those of you who They follow us. In addition to what Google has done for this site in the field of private and independent publishing in general.
How corporate bias toward big brands has eliminated idiocy
By time manager Mike Judge Finish making Office space, Beavis and Butthead The debut was ten years in the rearview, and he was eyeing another project. This time he wanted to make a time travel movie that satirizes the current trend of American culture. Fox had already made a lot of money working with Mike Judge, so they gave him the funding to make it happen.
Judge named his new comedy film Foolishness.
How Fox intentionally ruined Mike Judge’s film
With a smart script, Mike Judge at the helm, and a major movie studio backing him, Foolishness He looked ready to put on an impressive theatrical display. There was only one big problem: 20th Century Fox decided to intentionally ruin the film.
In March 2005, things started to go wrong for the first time. Foolishness It was shown to test audiences, and the feedback was so poor that 20th Century Fox ordered a wave of reshoots that would push back the film’s release date indefinitely.
By April 2006, Judge had made the Fox team comfortable enough with the film to announce a September 2006 release. Fox agreed to release it, likely because they were contractually required to do so. This contract did not require them to do anything else.
When the film’s release date began on September 1, 2006, Foolishness He was dead on arrival. Fox made sure of that by releasing it in only 130 theaters nationwide, to an audience that didn’t even know it existed.
Fox never marketed the film. Absolutely. Foolishness I didn’t even get a trailer for the movie.
The only promotional material anyone saw were two low-resolution images that a group of independent sites, like Cinema Blend, found and did their best to display. There wasn’t much to work with.
People can’t go to see a movie if they don’t know it exists. And no one knew Foolishness existing.
Killing foolishness
I only knew of its existence because I was heavily involved in Mike Judge’s coverage of my first independent entertainment news site, Cinema Blend. Very few other sites, especially those with major brands, were talking about The Next Judge’s movie, at all.
Foolishness It had not been previously screened for critics, so on the day of its release, I drove to the only Dallas theater in Texas to show it, intending to buy a ticket. The movie wasn’t on the movie screen, and the ticket seller seemed confused when I asked him to pay so I could see it. He had to check with his manager, before he would take my money (people still used that green paper stuff back then) and let me in.
Entrance sign identifying the theater Foolishness It was being projected, looking as if it had been printed on a Cinemark theater manager’s personal inkjet printer. The theater where the movie was shown was empty. I watched it alone and laughed alone.
Two days later, Cinemark stopped showing the film altogether. It didn’t last a week, but it was funny, and dozens of people who watched it already loved it.
My review was one of only 5 published online and placed on Rotten Tomatoes. Only three of those reviews were positive. As expected, the most negative of them came from one of the two major brand outlets who reviewed it, the scowling Entertainment Weekly critic.
Foolishness It ended its theatrical run after one week, grossing less than $500,000 at the global box office.
Fox destroyed idiocy for the same reason Google destroyed independent publishers
Fox killed his own movie. Why? Most people now believe they were afraid to upset their corporate partners.
throughout FoolishnessCorporate America is portrayed as the main antagonist and the main cause of the anti-intellectual culture that has destroyed the world. The film takes some wicked twists on companies like Starbucks.
In the future, Starbucks stopped serving coffee and started offering oral sex. Costco is now its own city state.
President Dwayne Elizondo Mountain Dew Camacho, played by Terry Crews, embodies this institutional cynicism. He’s a former professional wrestler and porn star who delivers exaggerated, stupid speeches while addressing the nation and shooting machine guns.
In a 2018 interview with GQ, Terry Crews admitted that real-life advertisers spent money on the film.Thinking they will get a positive image. They were shocked when they realized this Foolishness They turned their businesses into full-fledged massage parlors and then blamed them for destroying the entire world.
If Crews is right, this confirms that Fox was terrified of upsetting his co-workers, but was also contractually required to release the film. So they released him, while also doing everything they could to make sure no one saw him. All in an attempt to avoid angering major brands.
Ironically, this was the same excuse Google recently gave to independent sites, when asked why it gave legacy media preferential treatment. Some things, never change.
Mike Judge still refuses to say anything bad about Fox
Taking a more diplomatic approach, Mike Judge usually points to poor test screenings of the film as a reason Foolishness Never received a Starbucks style Full release. Judge also says that Fox always believed the film would eventually become a cult classic with audiences.
Not sure about buying it. He sounds like a man trying not to piss off his corporate partners.
However, it is true that Foolishness It quickly became a cult classic, no thanks to Fox.
How independent publishers teamed up with fans to save crap
The few independent sites that have done the review FoolishnessI worked hard to spread the word. when Foolishness Released on DVD, it is an independent site that supports readers who have seen places like Cinema Blind Rave About it for several months, I picked up a copy and gave it a shot.
These people watched the DVD, laughed themselves silly, and became instant converts. They participated Foolishness With their friends and their friends they shared it with their friends.
And thanks to all that organic sharing of Mike Judge’s film and the support of independent entertainment sites, almost everyone knows about it now Foolishness It is a genius work of time travel.
You’ll even see praise from the same big media brands you ignored, when they had to actually pay to see it.
He was Foolishness Would it become a cult classic without independent media? It’s amazing and I’d like to think so, but the movie is so completely buried by Fox that it’s hard to tell.
What we do know is that this scenario is unlikely to happen again, as Google continues to ban independent media outlets and small publishers, keeping them off the internet.
Mike Judge’s Journey into Idiocy
To understand what happened to Foolishnessyou have to understand the creator of the time travel movie, Mike Judge.
In 1993, Judge scored his first big break with his debut Beavis and Butthead. It was an MTv animated film about two teenage boys who are not the cream of the crop and always seem to find themselves in trouble. In between making fun of music videos on MTV, of course.
The show has become a lightning rod for controversy, especially from watchdog groups Beavis and Butthead Its reputation in the counterculture and launch of its creator’s career. The judge had more success after the TV show when Beavis and his friend had a box office hit movie Beavis and Butthead Do America.
Soon after, Mike Judge launched a popular animated series called King of the hill On Fox. Overall, he turned to live action by writing and directing the funniest workplace comedy ever Office space. It cast Jennifer Aniston in the lead, one of her first significant film roles.
Mike Judge was on a roll when he decided to do this Foolishness In 2005. He is now so traumatized by the whole experience that he can barely talk about it.
Folly visits a future full of stupidity
Starting in 2005, Foolishness The film revolves around Joe Powers, played by Luke Wilson, who is the most famous ordinary member of the United States Army. Joe is upset to learn that he has been removed from his position as military librarian for participating in a government-sanctioned hibernation experiment. He is joined in the experiment by a prostitute named Rita, who was supposedly recruited because she would do anything for money.
Joe entered the experiment with a guarantee that it would only last a year. Unfortunately, the government forgot about the project after its lead researcher was imprisoned for illegal activities. Joe wakes up 500 years later in a world completely different from the one he remembers. Mostly, it is different because due to the proliferation of stupid people, everyone in the world has become very stupid.
In the future, the film will be named No. 1 in America AssAnd that’s all that happened for 90 minutes. One butt, on screen, all the time. It won eight Academy Awards that year, including Best Screenplay.
All crops die because they are watered with energy drinks. English has degenerated into a mixture of hillbilly, valley girl, inner-city slang, and various grunts.
Joe, who was once seen as an ordinary guy, is now a genius.