jeffbase34

That's my theory. Fox studios knew that they had a real stinker on their hands after it was too late to pull the plug from the major hyping. So they release this unfinished workprint, then pretend to be outraged.

Now when the movie fails to bring in good box receipts, they can always claim it was because of the workprint. Wolverine was hyped as the summer movie event, yet has been trashed by almost every major movie critic.

If this sounds farfetched, consider that the same thing happened with Marvel's Hulk movie (Ang Lee vesion) a few years ago. IT was hyped for months, and looked good in the trailers like Wolverine. A workprint was leaked online, and the movie tanked in sales. Any exec previewing the movie early could tell that it was a stinker, and there was no way to fix the movie. Same thing with Wolverine.


In reality, a leaked and unfinished workprint is going to have little impact on sales.

musick

..no

dan30oly

It impacted myself, and all my close friends, in not seeing it in the theater.

RichC2

I still don't get how Wolverine looked good in the trailers. But I seem to be alone in thinking it looked terrible from the get go (and actually the movie stuck quite close to the trailers, so no surprise on the final quality.)

Workprints are more common with movies that have extensive reshoots, like Hulk and Wolverine. It happens and it isn't the studio's doing. A similar workprint found its way out for Kill Bill Vol 1.

And studios know no amount of bad press or free copies will hurt a movie's opening weekend unless it's flat out available everywhere, 100% complete and in DVD or higher quality. That said, I know a lot of people turned down the Wolverine workprint because of its partial visual effects and word that it wasn't the final cut of the movie.

Goat3001

Considering that the workprint wasn't the final cut and that the significant amount of Wolverines potential audience had no idea that a workprint was leaked or how to even get a hold of it, I'm willing to bet that it had very little impact on ticket sales. If Fox blames that for bad ticket sales I think most of us would see right through that.

madcougar

Anyone who was expecting a masterpiece is high on crack. This looked like the epitomy of a dumbed down comic book movie in the trailer and that's what we got. I knew this going in and enjoyed it enough.

fumanstan

No, I think that's a silly reach.

islandclaws

No way. The workprint was enough to turn me off the to film completely, but I thought I'd give it a second chance since the effects were unfinished and the film had "an exciting 10-15 additional minutes!" I didn't see. Then I found out it didn't, and the workprint was the same as the final cut. That was enough to keep me out of the theater, although to be honest I thought the trailers looked shitty to begin with, so I don't know if I would have even seen it.

The Bus

I saw part of the workprint and liked it enough to see it theatrically. We have to remember that X2, Iron Man, and the like are flukes: most comic book movies are about as good as the average comic book. They're entertaining, but not nourishing.

superdeluxe

bingo, Wolverine is going to clear a large amount of $$$$

Snowmaker

I actually have access to a copy of the workprint, but have not watched it and I'm going to see the movie today after work. So it has not affected me at all.

jeffbase34

That's kinda insulting to comic book fans. Comic books are full of rich tales of conflict and mature themes, not to mention the most creative baddies of all time.

There have been other great Marvel films like Blade and Spiderman. I just don't understand why the industry thinks it is a crime to have more have a franchise with countless sequels. James Bond is the only franchise that is allowed non stop releases. There is so much they could have done with Xmen, yet they killed the franchise totally with X3.

I also hate the Fantastic Four movies. That series had the most amazing villians and storylines, and they totally trashed it by giving Doctor Doom a ridiculous origin story.

A real life transaction of the Mole Man, Skrulls, Annilius, the Kree, and the Inhumans would be so awesome.

Ash Ketchum

Well, the movie came close to a record, pulling in $87 million in a weekend. What does that do to your theory?

Groucho

LOL...no. Hollywood is too busy conspiring against Christianity to pull something like this off.

Mopower

If you and your close friends were anyway involved in making the movie then you deserve it. Because the movie really sucks.

RocShemp

And the military too. Hollywood is a busy little bastard.

jeffbase34

I find that when people lack the intelligence to offer a solid counter-argument, they resort to mockery. Kinda sad.

daniel18

What? The movie has the same running time as the workprint? The worlprint seemed like it was missing a shitload of scenes, half an hour at least.

Supermallet

A solid counter argument to a silly conspiracy theory? [GOB]Come on![/GOB]

cranberries fan

No Fox didn't put out the link but someone close to subject did (he or she) was pissed about something and this is his REVENGE!

The Bus

No, they're not. They're not "full of them" — and I say this as someone who has read comics for decades.

BullGooseLoony

Another case in point: I downloaded the workprint, and because of it, am definitely not seeing it in theaters.

I'm not the only one, so I'm going to disagree with this theory.

ChristopherS

No they were honestly angry about the leak, enough so to get Fox's Roger Friedman fired for reviewing it.

Solid Snake

Why would anyone else believe otherwise? Seriously now....

GenPion

I'm in no rush to even see this. I might go sometime in the next few weeks on a lazy afternoon, but I have low expectations.

I'm ready for Star Trek to rock my world this week!