Fox's Response To 'Vampires Suck' Leak Makes Even Less Sense Than Response To 'Wolverine Leak'

from the please-explain dept

Last year, when a workprint of the movie Wolverine leaked, we pointed out that the studio producing the film, 20th Century Fox, could have responded in a way that would have built up a lot more fans, by saying something along the lines of:

Hey Wolverine fans! We know that you're all looking forward to the release of the movie next month. We're excited too! By now you may have heard that an early totally unfinished version has been leaked online. It's missing a whole bunch of stuff -- including some amazing special effects -- and honestly, this version isn't a finished product at all. We think you'll get a much better overall experience by waiting for the full finished product, but we certainly understand that some of you just can't wait (trust us, we feel the same way!). If that's the case, please, feel free to check it out, but please remember that this isn't even close to the final version. If anything, think of this as a "behind-the-scenes" peek of just what a movie looks like before all the real "movie magic" gets put in there. If you do check it out, we hope you'll join us May 1st to check out the finalized version as well on the big screen the way we intended for you to see this awesome movie. It's just a month away!

Instead, they went ballistic, and got the FBI involved and made a big stink about how awful this was. In the end, however, some studies suggested that the leak and all the attention around the leak actually resulted in helping the movie at the box office. The movie did much better at the box office than better reviewed movies that matched multiple characteristics, including having loyal fanbases. There was at least some evidence that perhaps all the publicity around the leak got more people interested in seeing the movie -- even if Fox did little to position themselves to take advantage of that -- as we suggested.

Still, that makes 20th Century Fox's response to the latest film leak even odder. TorrentFreak points out that the Twilight-spoof film Vampires Suck was leaked a few weeks ago -- and perhaps because of the publicity around the Wolverine leak, this time the company is trying to threaten everyone and issue takedowns quietly, instead of going public with their displeasure. But, of course, that hasn't stopped the movie from being available, and TorrentFreak notes over 100,000 downloads of the movie. However, by staying quiet publicly about the leak, it seems like Fox doesn't even get the beneficial publicity. This response seems to make even less sense than the response to Wolverine.

Filed Under: leaks, movies, vampires suck
Companies: 20th century fox