The Ohio Sci-Fi and Horror Marathons

This Friday Hatchet II opened, by Monday it was pulled from all North American theaters. I don't know what the premiere situation is right now, but here is a movie that needs an audience now. According to the director to get a print just get a hold of Dark Sky Film. I know it's more complicated than that but I was just tossing it out there.

I didn't like the first Hatchet that much but dude got screwed.

I liked the first Hatchet movie and was looking forward to seeing part 2 in the theater

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Jaws3dfan®
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WTF?!?!? I hate it when that happens. At least give the film one solid week before pulling it.

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Hey Adam do you have any idea why it was pulled?

Film review sites are mixed on the news. Some claim that AMC bowed to pressure from the MPAA about showing the "unrated" horror film. (The argument being that by AMC showing a film that the MPAA didn't rate, they were mocking the power of the MPAA, so the MPAA put pressure on AMC to no longer show the film.)

Other sites are claiming that the box office was just so terrible that AMC didn't want to waste screens on the film.

It's hard to say without having an inside source. The box office receipts for Hatchet II were pretty atrocious. Were they bad enough to justify pulling the film before the weekend? I dunno.

I personally suspect it's a combination of the two. The MPAA probably did express their displeasure with AMC for carrying the film. If the box office take had been better, AMC might've said "Go to hell." With the combination of pressure and low ticket sales, it may have made sense from AMC's perspective to say "Yeah, this isn't where we feel like taking a stand."

The thing is AMC has never pulled anything that has played under a week. All the theaters showing The Virginity Hit the week before kept it a full week and it had half the per-screen of Hatchet II. The big thing is that the cut that was being shown by AMC was rated NC-17. It's not a different cut than what was submitted, so the MPAA took it has a huge middle finger. Adam Greene, the director, has also been very vocal against the MPAA. Yes, AMC would have fought if the movie made money but they caved. The good thing is that the movie now has a much, much higher profile.

I actually got to experience the whole "pulled immediately after the weekend" thing. I was working at General Cinema Northland 8 and the movie was Tank Girl. It had a terrible weekend and when I came into work on Monday the movie was canned up and ready to be returned.

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Remember ... no matter where you go, there you are.

My friend ran a 2nd run theater in Columbus. They had the same thing happen when a film was released straight to them back in the early 90s. Adam Sandler, before he was famous in a movie called the Unsinkable Shecky Moskowitz. I believe it was released on VHS as Babes at Sea and then Going Overboard. I was the only one who set through it, every other patron walked out and demanded their money back. It was dreadful.

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The wages of sin are royalties.

At the Drexel North, we opened Mickey Rourke's PRAYER FOR THE DYING on Friday, one matinee and two evening shows. By Saturday afternoon, it was gone. I think we had three people total that bought tickets that Friday.

-David