“The Three Musketeers” opened in Washington theaters this weekend, though not to promising reviews. At press time, the latest adaptation of the 1844 Alexandre Dumas novel had just 23 percent positive reviews on online aggregator Rotten Tomatoes. That doesn’t include the opinions of critics from many of the big outlets, though — because “Musketeers” wasn’t screened for them ahead of its opening. So I can’t tell you what I think of the film. But I can report how one of its stars feels about the studio’s strategy.
Milla Jovovich, who plays Milady de Winter in Paul W.S. Anderson’s film, has taken to Twitter to complain that Summit Entertainment is putting little effort into marketing the movie.
“I think ‘summit’ hve swept ‘3 Musketeers’, a grt family adventure film, under the rug in the US. Shame on them. SHAME ON YOU ‘SUMMIT,'” Jovovich tweeted.
It’s rare for an actor to berate a studio publicly for its lack of promotional power — though it’s not rare for talent to think their movie isn’t being marketed enough, or marketed in the right way.
Jovovich thinks the PG-rated film could fill a niche this weekend and beyond, bringing both parents and their children into theaters for a movie both might enjoy. Family-friendly movies have the potential to make more money, simply because more people can be allowed in to theaters to see them.
The actress asked her fans their opinion on the mess: “Are ‘summit’ promoting it as a family adventure movie? Or are they resting on their laurels from ‘twilight’ n making no effort? Let me know!”
It seems some of them must have been on Jovovich’s sides. Later, she tweeted, “Let them know u & fans are upset that most of their tweets are about Twilight!”
Of course, it’s not as if audiences were waiting for another adaptation of the story. There have been more than a dozen already. Still, it’s a popular tale and this film features some good talent — Orlando Bloom, Matthew Macfayden, Mads Mikkelsen, Ray Stevenson, and Christoph Waltz as Richelieu.
And marketing does play an important role in getting people into seats. The underrated Clive Owen film “Shoot ‘Em Up,” for example, could have made much more money than it did. But those in the studio’s marketing department didn’t seem to know what to do with the very original film. Was it an action flick? A parody of an action flick? A comedy? In fact, it was all of those — with Paul Giamatti adding some clever cartoonish elements, too — but the trailers created didn’t give any hint of what a special little film it was.
Not every filmgoer spends hours online researching what’s coming out each week. Studio marketing departments owe it to the people who have put in the hard work creating a piece of art to craft a promotional strategy that gives each film a chance to find its audience.
Kelly Jane Torrance is The Washington Examiner movie critic. Her reviews appear weekly and she can be reached at [email protected].
