The Onslaught of Viral Marketing

So, last night I happened upon a trailer for the sci-fi suspense vehicle District 9, which appears to be a cross between the social study of Alien Nation and the corporation-of-evil-intent intrigue of the Alien and Resident Evil series. In no time, I know more about the movie and it's plot than I would ever need to thanks to a marketing onslaught via FaceBook, Twitter, YouTube start pages and whatever else.

I'm not getting the value of this.. in previous uses of this advertising strategy, the movie gets lots of publicity and a big opening night, but plays host to dead rooms for another week or two before getting canned because on Saturday morning everyone knows whether it lived up to the hype or not. Even before the release date, the intended audience has already been alienated (get it? alienated?... never mind) into two camps: dorks who can't wait, and the Rest Of Us who say "meh, I'll wait for the DVD").

I don't follow movie earnings very closely, but it seems like a lot of money gets lost on repeat business or word-of-mouth referral this way. I wonder how Star Wars (1978) would have fared under this model?

The tag line for District 9 is "Why won't we let them leave?". Well, with very little effort- nearly accidentally- I already figured out why, and by whom, and for what gain; there's gonna have to be one helluva plot twist to make this movie worth more than anything but eye candy now.

The opening date is set for August 14th.... let's see if anyone mentions or remembers it on September 1.

 

Yeah... the Alien trailer was a distress signal heard over a shot of an egg...made me uneasy... then it stated hatching and scared the living daylights out of me.

 

UPDATE: I stated he above quote, and was nearly dead on... now, maybe it's because I live on a small island, but this film came and went in less than two weeks.

But to be fair, I've noticed another interesting fact: Tarantino's Inglorious Basterds is no longer showing here either. Traci and I were stunned to see it gone already, as we wanted to go see it.

So, I'm asking: what has been the shelf-life of these films on the mainland?

 

Yes, I saw it on opening day precisely because I was concerned that some jerk would post a spoiler on the net somewhere in my view.

 

Judging by BigTitans' response, my problem does indeed seem to be related to living on a small island with a small population. There aren't many silver screens here, so maybe they have to move along and make room for new films rather quickly.

It could be worse: I could live on the island of Lana'i where first-run movies get shown in a small wooden building for two days, and two days only.