Blogs Predict Movie Doom

"A car wreck with boobs." This concise, yet substantive, review comes from CNN after the Dukes of Hazzard movie premiere. Yahoo! Movies backs CNN up with reviewers and consumers giving the movie a C average.

BlogPulse predicted the Dukes of Hazzard movie would, um, crash based on the lack of blog buzz prior to the movie. Technorati backs this up with only 51 posts sporting a Dukes of Hazzard tag.

A blog is not going to improve a bad movie, but it can certainly help generate more excitement, anticipation and attendance than an official movie web site. The expectations for official movie sites are a lot higher today, in part because of consumer-generated media. Aunt Tilly can post pictures of her trip to see the world’s largest ball of twine to her blog; I want more than a few pictures and wallpaper for my computer monitor at your web site. Give me behind the scenes access and posts from some of the stars.

The Dukes of Hazzard movie site has no blog. But Country Music Television can tell you that there is a lot of interest in a blog on this topic. CMT made a ton of news with their search for a vice president of their Dukes of Hazzard institute who would also blog about the show. CMT introduced Chris Nelson on June 2nd and, more than two months later, there is still no blog to be found on the CMT site. This blog would have helped the movie too.

Goofus and Gallant
So the Goofus goes to the Dukes of Hazzard movie for not tapping into the blogosphere to help promote the movie. The Gallant goes to Garden State. Writer, director and star Zach Braff’s Garden State Blog helped generate a ton of buzz for the cult movie long after it hit theatres.

UPDATE: Well, the movie may not be getting critical acclaim, but it did rake in the most money this weekend. However I will note that they have not broken even yet. The Dukes of Hazzard sold $30.6 million in tickets and cost $53 million to make.

tags: blog, dukes of hazzard, marketing

Comments

[Darren]

A couple of notes on the Dukes of Hazzard opening:

* It was up against absolutely no competition. A documentary about tsetse flies would have opened on top.
* August is the worst month for movie openings.
* That $53 million is often the production budget, and frequently doesn't include marketing spend. Marketing spend is apparently anywhere from 50 to 100 percent of the production budget.

[Jeremy Pepper]

I know too many people that went to see the movie, and it was supposed to be not bad / good. The factor has more to do with the stars than the story, as USA Today noted.

[nunya biznes]

the new dukes of hazzard movie is so bad i dont no y they even put the time into making it. we had the perfectly good original seiries on cmt that is 100000 times better than stupid jessica. she thinks she is the best daisy duke in her little miny skirt and shirts that dont even cover up her stomach.!! it is a plain out discrase to country. if u were smart u would watch the original dukes of hazzard on cmt and 6 and 10.

[Jason]

The Dukes of Hazard movie completley sucks ass! I wonder if who ever came up with this shit accually ever saw an episode of the show obviousley not. Is there even any similarties between any of the characters, Burt Renyods yea give him about 10 more years, and Willie Nelson give me a break hell he couldnt play dead in a cowboy movie. That Idiot that played BO he just embarrased himself, Jessica Simpson hun just stick with the music buissness because you will starve to death as a actress. For the rest of you clowns good luck with your careers, because Believe Me! you will need it.

[steve]

Dukes of Hazard movie what a joke! Hey, the plot was'nt the best but ok, the characters terrible were in the world did they find those people. Hey Burt no disrespect love all your movies quiet surprised you would stoop as low to make that shit. When in the world did uncle Jesse become a dirty joke telling pervert way off base there. For BO and Luke what a laugh is that the idiot that played on that movie Jackass that hung from a tree by his underwear? Bo's character where in the hell did they find you? You may get a grammy this year for worst actor you got my vote. Jessica like another comment read stick with the music industry you will starve as a actress.

[Jon]

I worked as an usher at a multiplex cinema when this piece of wretched crap movie came out, not only did this piece of dog shit'n dodo cacha stink the theater up with it being shown on three separate screens at the same time, all the morons who came to see it where rude, ugly bunches of a waste of human flesh that left a big stink of a fowl mess in the theater. When they walked out of the movie at the end doing some obscene chicken walk dance step to a horrible remake of a Nancy Sinatra song i started looking for my gun.