by Katrina Bertz
An intelligent comedy about the dangers of stupidity reproducing seems like a box-office winner, however Idiocracy had a worldwide profit of $495,303, (boxofficemojo.com). The reason for this stems from a distribution company essentially abandoning its investment out of fear. Idiocracy was written and directed by Mike Judge (Beavis and Butthead, King of the Hill, Office Space). When 20th Century Fox chose to work with Judge again, they expected him to make another sleeper hit like Office Space. Idiocracy, while intelligent and stupidly funny at the same time, confused the studio executives and forced them to reconsider promoting the film.
By the time the film was finished and shown to Fox, the marketing department didn’t know what to do with it. They didn’t know if it was a stupid movie or a smart one and, therefore didn’t know how to sell it, (Cozzalio, paragraph 2). When the studio began testing its ads and trailers, they all failed miserably. This led to Fox never releasing an official trailer to be shown in theatres; which guaranteed no promotion of the film. As Dennis Cozzalio, a film critic stated, “it didn’t take a genius to figure out that the movie was being unceremoniously dumped in a handful of markets and left for some studio exec’s self-fulfilling prophecy to officially declare it dead,” (Cozzalio, paragraph 1).
Much of the confusion and poor initial test screenings of the film was due to its content. Jim Emerson, another film critic, posited “imagine a country where, even at the highest levels, ignorance is flaunted and incompetence rewarded,” (Emerson, paragraph 1). That is the essence of Idiocracy; a world where eugenics has caused the human race to become so dumb, an average guy like Joe (played by Luke Wilson) can be the smartest man on the planet. This concept, including an opener which explained how the de-evolution began, attributed to test audiences becoming offended and confused as to what they were watching and whether this film was meant to be a message claiming that the poor shouldn’t procreate. The problem with this is that Mike Judge meant for the film to be a satire and people rarely understand satire.
While 20th Century Fox didn’t even hold critic screenings for the film, the majority who had the opportunity to see it held it in very high regard. They all seemed to get the joke that Judge was trying to make. Emerson called it “superficially dumb, deceptively smart- and funny,” (Emerson, paragraph 2). Cozzalio claimed “Judge’s premise, borne of a satiric approach to the fallacies of eugenics, leaves plenty of hope for humanity to hang itself,” (Cozzalio, paragraph 4). Another critic named Reihan Salam saw the film as a sad, but brilliant look at the possible future and its cautionary message. “Rare is the movie that challenges your beliefs. Rarer still is the movie that tells you you’re a fat moron, and that you should be ashamed of yourself. The tragedy is that Idiocracy is easily the most potent film of the year,” (Salam, paragraph 1-4).
Idiocracy was released on September 1st, 2006. It was given a rating of R by the MPAA and its runtime is one hour and twenty-four minutes. Its domestic box office is $444,093, while its foreign box office is $51,210; giving the film a total profit of $495,303. On its opening weekend, Idiocracy made $124,367, opening in 130 theatres, (boxofficemojo.com).
Works Cited
Emerson, Jim. Oh, The Idiocracy!. “Scanners, with Jim Emerson.” RogerEbert.com. September
20th, 2006. Web. http://www.rogerebert.com/scanners/oh-the-idiocracy
Cozzalio, Dennis. Mike Judge’s Idiocracy: Fear for a Dumb Planet, Fear of a Smart, Funny
Movie. “Sergio Leone and the Infield Fly Rule.” September 19th, 2006. Web.
Salam, Reihan. Idiocracy, the Feel-Bad Movie of the Year. Slate.com. September 29th, 2006.
Web.http://www.slate.com/articles/arts/movies/2006/09/the_movie_hollywood_doesnt_want_you_to_see.html
Box Office Mojo. Idiocracy. Updated: January 1st, 2016. Web.
http://www.boxofficemojo.com/movies/?id=idiocracy.htm
1 comment:
You have exposed a common truth - creativity and business acumen are not the same in the movie business. Charlie Chaplin was a rare exception!
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