According to a report over at
The New York Times, Warner Bros. will have a considerably smaller presence at this years San Diego Comic Con after reassessing the benefits of attending the event. A mixture of negative fan feedback damaging the reputation of the movies shown and the amount spent on bringing actors, footage and elaborate displays to San Diego has resulted in studios reconsidering whether or not it's all worth it! The site points out
Scott Pilgrim Vs. The World and
Buried as prime examples of being well recieved at the show, but not going on to succeed at the box office. Here is an excerpt from the report.
This year? Warner’s main studio operation is bringing nothing. Ditto Disney and DreamWorks. The Weinstein Company, a perennial presence, will also sit this one out. Even Marvel Entertainment, whose panel for “The Avengers” was a highlight of Comic-Con 2010, is on the fence about whether it will mount a major presentation.
Comic-Con, as a growing number of movie marketers are realizing, has turned into a treacherous place. Studios come seeking buzz, but the Comic-Con effect can be more negative than positive. The swarm of dedicated fans — many of whom arrive at the convention in Japanese anime drag or draped in Ewok fur — can instantly sour on a film if it doesn’t like what it sees, leaving publicity teams with months of damaging Web chatter to clean up.
So, does this mean we won't see anything of
The Dark Knight Rises and
Superman: Man of Steel at the event? It certainly seems that way! If Marvel Studios also decide to minimise their presence, I guess we can forget the rumors of Joss Whedon (along with the first footage from
The Avengers) being in attendence! While we still have panels for
The Amazing Spider-Man,
Cowboys & Aliens and
Planet of the Rise of the Apes to look forward to, this could be the beginning of a very worrying trend.