Geeks in a Theater!

Apparently some bloggers left their desks long enough to attend the movie Snakes on a Plane, as evidenced by the weekend box office results that made the flick number one. Cornered by a reporter while trying to sneak out a side exit, one nerd said, “Whew! That was a long time to be away from my laptop. Thank goodness it was dark and you weren’t supposed to talk to the person next to you.”

Although the movie should turn a profit, it performed far below expectations. From AP:

...the campy Samuel L. Jackson thriller did not meet the lofty expectations
created by an underground swell of excitement fueled by numerous Web sites
containing fan-generated trailers and gushing reviews.

The studio expected the film to top $20 million, although it wasn't quite
sure if or how the Internet frenzy would translate into box-office
bucks.

"It was one of those things where for three months we were trying to catch
up with the Internet on this picture," New Line head of distribution David
Tuckerman said. "We were never sure where it was going to go. It just was
disappointing. We thought it would do better."

Internet backers of the film's premise were emboldened when New Line
responded to their complaints about the movie not being violent enough. The
studio shot several new scenes to satisfy demand for more shock value.

In the end, the movie may have suffered from too much attention.

"People started to take the Internet buzz a little bit too seriously," said
Lew Harris, editorial director for Movies.com, which is owned by The Walt Disney
Co.

"The buzz starts feeding on itself. People then start thinking this is
appealing to a larger audience than it was."

For a movie to open with $30 million or more - as was expected by some -
"you need a pretty mainstream audience as opposed to the fanboys buzzing about
it on the Web," Harris said.

Hmmm. Is that my blog's problem? Suffering from too much attention? Hardly.