*** Official SERENITY Discussion Thread - Page 6

Yes, I think DVD sales will decide the fate of future movies in this series.

I don't know that I would totally blame Universal for all the box office problems. They did try a new marketing approach with this film (this was well documented in lots of publications) and it does appear to have failed. I do agree that if it was released in April or May that it would have easily made 50-60 million, there is no doubt about that. But Universal knew they would atleast break even after DVD sales so there was no real incentive for them NOT to try something new. And if it had worked we would be calling it genius. Heck, I really thought it was going to work.

But then again, even though we love this show/movie, maybe its just not for everyone. Maybe its just "too weird" for the general public to try out. I know my family doesn't get it no matter how much I try to convince them.

I'll be seeing it again this weekend and continue to encourage family/friends/enemies/hampsters/livestock/anyone to see it as well.

I have seen quite a bit of tunnel vision of late. While the psychology of it is fairly astounding and interesting, many of the conclusions and rationalizations are faulty.

1) $10M, 40% dropoff = $22M after 4 weeks. And 40% is a GREAT number. Like Spidey and SW, I don't think it's a 50/50 domestic/international film. It's very "American". I think 60/40 is more realistic. So I *think* $80M overall is a pipedream. I think $50M is closer. It will be perceived as a BO failure. There aren't enough hardcore fans in the world to change that. I say this with no glee. It's a sober observation.

2) I agree the DVD sales will push it into the black rather easily. I hold out some small measure of hope for Sci-Fi original movies or maybe even DTV movies. Firefly will not see the big screen again. Frankly, given the choice, I'd rather Sci-Fi make a series out of it over movies. I prefer more time with the characters...more breathing room.

3) We got the feature film. It didn't click with the mainstream. A huge chunk of that CAN be laid on the advertising campaign. I saw a lot of ads, but they told no story. Frankly, the cult aspect HURT the film tremendously. I love Buffy and Angel. There is no need to sell it fans of Whedon. No need to sell it as a successful TV show. That hurt a lot as well. People ALREADY felt out of the loop.

Brandon, I understand your frustration (expressed here and elsewhere), but you've got to let it go. You are allowing your emotional attachment to the series to be impacted by it's finances and mainstream appeal. That's a huge mistake, and you'll be a lot happier divesting yourself of that burden. I felt the same for a brief period of time regarding a few films, most notably The Matrix Revolutions, which is used a common punchline by plenty of folks. But I simply don't care. I got a great film that works beautifully for me. That's a gift. Whether others like it or not, insult it or not, demean it or not, is irrelevant. And to be bluntly honest, much better films have been treated much worse than Serenity. It's a fun movie with characters that are well-drawn (in the show; when I finally review it, I'll discuss the numerous characters that were ignored in the film), good action, and a decent theme. It's not a masterpiece, it's not even Joss' best work. Consider it a love letter to the fans.

I have seen a lot of messengers shot at this week. Celebrate the movie, don't mourn it's BO. Who cares if the mainstream didn't get it? Why the emotional investment in other people's time and money?

Take care,
Chuck

I saw this opening night, but didn't have a chance to post. My friend was a huge fan of the show, where as I've always been less than impressed by Joss in general, I don't think he's a hack, I know he's a talented story teller, just doesn't work for me as well as to others. He had me watch the series befor going. I liked the series, but didn't love it. It didn't start to get truely interesting to me until the last 4 episodes, with "Objects" clearly being the bet of the show. I think this is manly why fans are so passionate about it, it got canceled just as it was getting good. The series on a whole was not great, just good genre stories (original to a point with the whole space western thing be realized in a believable way.) with the final 4 seeming to really dive and play arpound with the established characters.

So the movie: I loved it, I easily rank it as one of the best sci-fi films I've seen. It was fun, intense, had good character moments, a general blast of a film that didn't play dumb to the audience, but played aas naturally as the series did. I do think that Joss made it in such a way that you don't have to see the series to enjoy it, but i can't help but think a lot of moments would be lost if you didn't, particularly Shepard. If you hadn't seen the previous shows, in the movie, he's basically an old guy they hide out with, who gets killed, as opposed to a mysterious man of God with a past. It's a real shame that more people don't seem to be going to this, it's deffenately going to do big numbers on DVD, and with the tv series priced under $30, I can see the potential for a Family Guy type ressurection.

I have to agree with other posters about the marketing. I've only seen one tv commercial for this, and it made it look like a chick fight flick. I had heard it got bumped from the spring, and figured it was due to the typical studio medling from test screening, maybe getting recut or something, but from the above poster, it sounds more like some marketing experiment. What exactly was the plan?

Again, a great movie, a great end to the series, and a good continuation if they get to make more.

His character was overconfident at times. Inara's room and the final fight with Mal are two examples. Just when he's about to strike, he's given a surprising blow. It's the same situation with the space battle. How could he have possibly predicted that the Reavers would be following Serenity? The radar couldn't pick it them all up until they got out of the clouds.

Which is why it's out of character at that moment. He knows Mal isn't (that) stupid. And yet he believes the very brief feint. I wouldn't expect him to know Reavers were behind them (though he should have noticed Serenity didn't look the same as before), but I would expect him to be curious about Mal's actions. They didn't fit with previous ones. It didn't fit, for me, with the character they had established before. Joss did it for the "F*** YEAH!!" moment when the Reaver ships come out ("take that, bad guy!"). It just rubbed me the wrong way. It's not the first time Joss "cheats" his characters a bit for a crowd-pleasing moment.

Take care,
Chuck

I'd say there's a fourth reason, which is that "Joe Sixpack" has a dvd player and is wise to dvd release patterns. I mean, in my workplace, for instance, I hear this same conversation any time the subject of going to the movies comes up: "Considering what Hollywood is releasing nowadays, is it really worth paying out the ass to see something that I can watch in more comfort and for less money at home in three months? HELL NO!!!" Every single time. It's just getting harder and harder to pry people out of their homes for a theatrical movie.

It's not like Serenity was the only movie that underperformed this week - Flightplan, despite being #1 again isn't exactly burning up the charts. A couple of years ago a movie with a solid budget might have been guaranteed at least $20 million at opening but that's not the case anymore and I think the saturation of the dvd market has a lot to do with it.

Given the show's history I agree we're very lucky to have this excellent film at all, and it does provide a decent ending to the story.

I think the reviews of the movie may have actually hurt it! Sure they're mostly good reviews but most of them make a big deal about the "canceled cult TV show" its based on and/or go on & on about "Joss".

I watched and liked Firefly from the start so the "cult TV" thing obviously didn't bother me, but if I hadn't I could easily see it being a big detraction. People are going to assume (even though the reviews say otherwise) that the movie will only appeal to the people who have seen the TV show, or they'll think that show can't be that good if it got canceled.

Especially when the most publicity there was surrounding the show was when it got cancelled...
They should have marketed this as a stand-alone movie, without connections to the TV show. Those who liked the TV show knew the connection already, and those of us who didn't (the majority, since it was cancelled quickly and had bad ratings) only feel less interested in seeing something that we weren't in on from the beginning.

Plus, the little marketing I saw was really weird. The ads on TV that I saw were mainly just saying that it's a "phenomenon" that was written about in Newsweek (and other magazines). Huh? Why not just describe it as a kick-ass sci-fi movie?



I thought it fit great with the character of the Operative as he was established. They had shown him being overconfident before, and that his (only?) weakness was his arrogance. I got the feeling that he figured that Mal would be up to something, but that it really didn't matter, because a) he believed the Alliance fleet could take out whatever Mal had up his sleeve anyway, and b)Mr Universe's equipment was destroyed so even if there was a remote chance that Mal made it through, it would be of no use at that time, and the Alliance could deal with them again in a little bit. There was no way he could have expected that Mal would have anything as powerful and relentless as a whole fleet of Reavers with him, so the scene worked great for me.

Serenity DVD on 12/20?

http://www.thedigitalbits.com/rumormill.html#1006

If so it will further hurt box office as the short wait will encourage people to skip seeing it in the theater.

I care because other people's time and money get me more. In retrospect Whedon should have NEVER said ANYTHING about ideas of further stories and box office determining their production. Instead, he should have said that Serenity was his way of finishing it, period, and THEN if it was successful he could surprise us with more. "Hey, guess what fans - the movie has done well enough, and now I got an ace up my sleeve. There's more story to tell...."

But because I knew that getting more was in the realm of possibility and determined by specific factors it's therefore shaded my experience. I wish Whedon had never said a damn thing about such possibilities.

Anyway, at this point I only care about the box office because I know there's more ideas for the universe out there and I want it. The difference between this and your Matrix Revolutions example is that there was no "If Matrix Revolutions does good enough business, we have ideas for two more movies" from the Wachowski's. People can hate this movie or be indifferent all they want, I really don't care. It's when that hate and indifference effect more stories waiting to be told that I get upset.


Very true. It makes me wonder why anything less than a tentpole film is given a theatrical release anymore. Eveybody nowadays is about convenience and comfort at lower prices. And I can understand it. The bitter irony of course is that the films this mentality ends up hurting are those like Serenity that offer real reason to get out of the home and into the theater.

It's generally good advertising for the DVD to have a movie released theatrically, even if overall the studios now make more money from DVD sales than from box office receipts.

There is still a stigma to movies to be "direct to DVD", but that will probably change over time.

Personally, I think it was a big mistake to wait until the end of September to release this film. If they were going to push it back, it should have been in August, when summer break was still going on.

It may still have some legs, but we have to see what happens next weekend.

I also wonder if they ran too many sneak previews for it. How many of those people went out and watched the film?

The biggest disappointment will be, if this does fail, we won't have anymore Firefly for at least three years. (Part of the deal with Fox was that it couldn't return to TV for three years.)

Jason

I recognize (and concede) the point about it's success yielding more films. It's marketing totally failed you. Mike is correrct. It should have been advertised as a kick-ass sci-fi film that's fun and witty. Blaming filmgoers is 100% wrong, IMO. There was NO REASON for them to see this film. I liked the show quite a bit, I trust Joss, etc. The advertising campaign did NOTHING for those who are unfamiliar with the guy. As I mentioned before, I think it hurt. Blaming people for not paying $10 a ticket to see something based on the commercials is pretty ridiculous. I'd simply direct your ire elsewhere. In April, this film would have made quite a bit more. People were getting energized for the summer. In the early fall, people are tired of "big" movies, to an extent. Football, new TV, work/school, etc.

By taking the ire out on the PAYING audience, you are completely missing the real issue. I understand your frustration, but it is misdirected (it's like blaming people on the street when their local football team loses a game). Films EARN their audience. They don't "deserve" anything. The film held up their end of the bargain (to an extent), but that is not enough these days, and the DIRECTOR should have known better.

As for his promises...I love Joss, but he's an overeager fanboy, just like us.

The DVD will sell. And the public will move on, perfectly happy. As Chris Rock would say, "I walked out on Prince right before he sang 1999...you think I give a **** about Chris Rock?" The fault lies with the marketing and release date, to a major extent.

Maybe you'll have a shelf of terrible Firefly novels to make up for it...I shudder at the thought I hold out hope for DTV...I think the DVD might show promise in that area (an area Universal is already exploring rather heavily).

Take care,
Chuck

The plan, as I understand it, was this. There was a studio mandated test screening. The audience of non-fans and total Firefly newcomers thought it was OKAY, but was sorta confused. At that point, Universal didn't really know what to do with the film--they knew it had sold a bunch of DVD's by that point, and that there was a cult audience type thing going on, but they didn't really know how to get an angle on any of that, at least not one you can boil down into a 30 second spot.

So they shoved back the release date gave Whedon a lot of the responsibility for selling the flick the way he wanted it sold. He wanted to really emphasize the "word of mouth" "cult phenomenon" angle, which is why we got the preview screening rollouts and the newspaper and television ads that hyped this up. Universal went along with it to see if these sorts of manufactured grass roots campaigns can actually work.

Universal spent about 20-25 million advertising this thing. It wasn't a SMALL advertising sinkhole, actually. They spent a fair amount of money. The problem was, they spent a fair amount of money showing people "bleh" trailers that didn't really sell you on the movie, but sold you on a canceled TV show that was a "cult phenomenon" with dvd critics.

I remember before I even saw a frame of Firefly, I saw the Serenity trailer, and went "Even if this movie IS great, no one's going to want to watch it after getting pullquotes from the critics at dvdtown.com and reviews of the Buffy DVD set in their trailer" which was an exaggeration, yes, but still. My girl is a HUGE Firefly fan, she couldn't wait for the movie--but only after the DVD's. She saw two different Serenity trailers and registered NO interest until I made her watch the DVD's. Now if the ad campaign couldn't hook someone who ended up LOVING the movie, then man...

But honestly, It's not just the ad campaign. The concept just seems to be unappealing to most people. I gotta cop to this, too--I missed Firefly on it's initial run for the same reason I didn't like the Serenity trailer--shoddy advertising, credentials listing shows I didn't like, and an emphasis not on the show or the characters, but on the guy making it. And what I DID see of the show and characters was unappealing, really. It's the sort of show you have to just WATCH.

I'll probably be seeing it again this weekend, after I catch "A History of Violence" on Saturday.


This is what I'M saying--if this DVD sells very well, I mean REALLY well, I'm thinking Universal needs to try and use this movie as it's guinea pig AGAIN. And let this series play out as a set of direct to DVD movies. If any "phenomenon" of the last 2 years bears this out, it's going to be Firefly/Serenity. It's only really found any sort of life on DVD. Maybe this series, if it happens, can help to get rid of that sort of stigma.


True, but I bought it because it was set up previously that the Operative looks to have broken Mal's will. Mal was about THIS near tears, after just finding out that every place he ever called a haven during his life just got razed to the ground. The Operative knows what response he wants to get from these actions, and when Mal shuts down communications in mid-sentence with this horrified look on his face, I can see the Operative thinking he got what he wanted. He knows Mal isn't stupid, but he thinks he's BROKEN. Which is why when he flies directly at the Operative, Op doesn't really suspect anything. He thinks Mal is doing a suicide run. I can buy that character thinking he's whipped all the fight out of Mal.

Good point, Robert. I just didn't buy the glee he showed in front of nobody Alliance military folks. Most did. I didn't. It didn't ruin the film, the scene, or the character for me. Just felt out of place.

Great point on DTV sequels. And I do think the DVD will sell quite well (and I mean REALLY WELL). Well enough to pony up for a DTV venture with sci-fi paying for the airing rights 4 months later (new fans would buy the DVD if they liked it for free...old fans would buy the DVD right away, plus watch the Sci-Fi showing hosted by "insert actor/Tim Minear here".). I should be a businessman.

Take care,
Chuck

http://www.hometheaterforum.com/htfo...88#post2468188

Fall release killed this movie, smaller box office, traditional downturn of moviegoing population during the fall, etc... Of course the studio won't see it that way; they never do.

Serenity was excellent, very very good movie, and an even better SF movie. Joss' strengths are characterization and keeping a plot moving without becoming dull or expositionary. The comic beats were perfectly timed, and even during the dramatic last stand they still managed to entertain without sapping away the sense of dramatic tension. Well done indeed.

Only major problem I noticed plot or character wise was, for movie-only audience members, I don't remember any mention or development of Zoe and Wash's marriage. I knew it, as did the other fans, but mundanes might have been a little confused by a little of the dialog (calling each other baby at a few points, and also Zoe's very intense reaction to Wash's death).

Wash's death was a huge surprise, as it was supposed to be. Very sad, because he was a very talented pilot but otherwise basically an innocent babe in the woods. However, as a matter of movie-craft, the death was necessary and even brilliant.

Following his death, the audience feels a very real and sharply defined sense peril on behalf of the characters. As someone said earlier, without Wash's death, when Simon (particularly) gets shot and goes down, it would feel more like a typical TV circumstance (where you know the principles live because they'll be there next week, etc...) Off Wash, and suddenly that scene has the impact it should even despite a jaded modern audience's sensibilities.

Regarding the ad campaign, definitely agree with the comments here. The campaign seemed determined to sell to the core audience; no no no no no! I accuse studios of hordes of evil and idiotic things with great regularity, but I've never accused them of marketing stupidity. Here though, vast marketing stupidity.

Why spend money selling the already sold? Spend money to get people like my parents, or my idiot coworkers, interested in the movie. For the fans, you can easily and cheaply keep our interest piqued and our mouths and fingers spreading the word; just release a clip or two and a trailer here and there to the net, and that's all it takes. Mundane audience members require trailers and commercials that explain things.

Ultimately, this is a real shame; Universal probably won't learn the proper lessons. Serenity clearly proves a Direct Release business model can work for entertainment. Someone said the pilot cost US$20mil; I'm assuming that included a lot of budget for set construction. Since they have sets now (at least some of them still exist, surely) .... all they have to do is pay for cast and crew, materials, and some standard costume / prop stuff, plus a few effects here and there. Surely they could do Direct-to-DVD material that was 2-3 hours long once or twice a year, and make a healthy profit? If there are enough core audience members to make US$10mil on a single release weekend (paying an average of ??? US$9 per ticket), surely that translates to enough core folks to cause a DTD capable of turning revenue in excess of US$15mil or more?

Spend US$5-7mil making that 2 or 3 hours of DTD movie, and that seems to be an easy way to both double your money and give you a vehicle to directly market to those fans other DTD or genre releases (like TV on DVD sets, etc...)

About Mals reaction, I remember an SF story about a human that gets captured by the aliens they were fighting and losing. He seems to turn traitor and starts advising the the aliens on how to destroy humanities will to fight. He has them massacre every living thing on any planet the aliens attack assuring them that this would break their will. It had the opposite effect. They were also surprised.

One thing that bugged me was, watching the late night talk shows, there was no sign of anyone connected to Serenity as a guest. Now maybe they don't rate a guest shot on Leno or Letterman but surely they could Nathan and/or Summer on Conan or Craig Ferguson.

I think the problem with the "test screenings" strategy is that they attracted the same crowd each time, made primarily of hardcore fans who didn't need to be sold on the movie.

Not sure if this has been discussed but there is definately hope for a sequel since Universal is now getting in the business of DTV sequels of popular franchises:

"Universal Studios Home Entertainment president Craig Kornblau told the publication, "We have a $24 billion business that consumers absolutely love ... and yet there is very little content made only for this business." Many of the new features being produced for DVD release are being described as "franchises" -- essentially sequels to successful films. Last week, Universal launched "Universal DVD Originals" with Carlito's Way: Rise to Power, a sequel to 1993's Carlito's Way. On Dec. 27, the studio will release the DVD sequel American Pie: Band Camp, starring Eugene Levy. Sony plans to release Single White Female 2: The Psycho on Oct. 25 and 8MM2 on Nov. 22. New Line is planning sequels to 1994's 8 Seconds and last year's The Butterfly Effect. And Paramount Home Entertainment President Meagan Burrows told the publication that the studio is "in the process of developing a new [DVD] comedy label."

Hell, if they are going to make a sequel for 8 Seconds and 8MM, I think Serenity is a no brainer.

wouldn't 8mm2 be more like 16mm? ahahahahahahahahahaaaaaayeaaahhhh no.

This looks to me like the studios have finally picked up on Disney's DTV sequel model. Serenity's pretty much right up that alley now.

What an original title.

Well this gives me some hope, at least.

The posters so far all seem to be existing (devout) fans. Here's a non-insider opinion.

I never heard of Firefly and didn't see any advertisements for the movie. (I don't watch much TV; so take that for what it's worth. But you'd think that they could have targeted me on the web somewhere if they were trying at all.) I took my 12/13 year old kids to see it on a lark.

Now that I think about it, my kids never heard of the movie either, and they do watch TV. So the marketing for this film must have been pretty non-existent. Were they depending entirely on the Firefly base?

Anyway, it wasn't landmark, but a great afternoon serial-type film. We all loved (in a hated sort of way) the death of Wash. But I thought the other character's reaction to it was not adequate.

I didn't like how they used the River backstory. The fantastic opening focused so much on her and her reprogramming and her being able to read minds (particularly the key government people's minds) - and in the end all we get is a planet name. (I'll add that my daughter thought my opinion on this was a crock.)

We all thought that the captain's character was a bit of a mishmash. Looked like they wanted to go for the Hans Solo but couldn't quite commit to it. (My son came up with the comparison). And the loner bit seemed overplayed.

Oh, both kids want the DVD.

Al.Anderson - Thanks for the non-Firefly-fan review & perspective about Serenity! I'd say that your reaction to "Serenity" probably represents the majority of movie-goer's that are not familiar with the short-lived "Firefly" TV series.

Since you folks did like the film (DVD possibly coming soon in Dec.), ... I'd recommend watching the Original Complete 14 episodes (11 episodes aired in random order by Fox; Joss Whedon corrects that w/14 episodes on 4 DVD's) of "Firefly". IMHO, it's possible that some of your comments & reactions might change.

Phil

I saw a lot of ads on television leading up to the films release.

Hopefully, we'll get some more films either DTV or via cable. As noted by Mark above, I think original sequels via direct-to-DVD is going to be huge. The "Carlito's Way" video sequel stunned the industry this week by debuting at #4 on the sales chart. If it happens on a regular basis with the other upcoming DTV sequels, I can see this being a huge market in the near future.


So you'll be buying two then?

Finally had the time to catch a matinee today:

Very, very good film. I'm not going to harp on the good stuff since it agrees with almost everything everyone has said in this thread but I will mention my disappointments:

1) Cinematography. This is a big one for me- I thought Serenity looked washed out and ugly. Firefly, although a TV series, often looked as good as a movie to me. Serenity, on the other hand, looked *worse* than the TV series IMO. To be fair though I'll have to wait until it hits DVD so that I can properly match the two up. Then again I'm probably in a tiny minority that has never cared much for Jack Green's shooting.

2) Going alone with cinematogrpahy I thought Whedon's direction was weaker than most of his TV efforts. Aside from the oft-mentioned opening steady-cam shot and a few other scenes I didn't think it was nearly as visually striking or elegant as almost all of Whedon's TV work.

3) Ron Glass was almost unrecognizable as Book. It looks like he lost a lot of weight and, combined with the new hairstyle, he didn't really feel like the Shepherd from the series. Consequently his death lost a little bit of resonance to me.

4) The Operative was an effective villain but I liked the performance and character of the very similar Early from the show better.

I didn't really buy The Operative's change of heart at the end. I had a hard time believing that someone who does so much evil *in the employ of the Alliance* could be so disillusioned with the events on Miranda.

5) Wash's death- My only issue was that it was almost identical to a similar death on one of Whedon's shows so it lost a bit of shock to me. Indeed, the Buffy series finale seemed to very much be a test run for Serenity's finale. Not really a complaint though- I wish more creators would be willing to up the stakes in this manner.

I did find it amusing that early in this thread so many stated something to the effect of "with the stakes so high and main characters being killed off you know you're not watching a TV show." Clearly they aren't referring to Whedon's TV shows because these, along with all of the other fantastic elements of Serenity, are hallmarks of all three of his shows.

Overall I though the movie was a blast and if indeed it ends up serving as a finale to Firefly/Serenity then it was every bit as good as I could have hoped for.

As much as I like the character of River in the series and movie they basically wrote the same scene for her over and over (scream. act crazy). As Simon would say, her treatment wasn't working and I don't think she was enough to base a whole story around. Many of the reviews reflected that as well.
Still the movie was a cut above the usual stuff you see in the theatre and much better than that recent trilogy that was about as exciting as paint drying.
In all truthfullness, I think Firefly/Serenity is more of a character driven small screen project and when you bring that to the big screen a lot of what made it special was lost in the translation.
I agree with the advertising. It wasnt that great and people that I know that werent familiar with the show didnt care to see the movie after seeing the previews for it.

From thedigitabits.com

Our ever reliable industry sources are telling us that Universal will soon announce the DVD release of Joss Whedon's Serenity for 12/20. Early word indicates that the disc may include Whedon audio commentary, along with at least 4 behind-the-scenes featurettes (Future History, We'll Have a Fruity Oaty Good Time, Re-Lighting the Firefly and What's in a Firefly), a video introduction to the film by Whedon and 6 minutes worth of outtakes. Some of the details on the extras comes from the BBFC website (click the link and hit enter). We'll post more as it comes in.

Apparently you don't watch much TV, or always leave the room during commercial breaks. I've seen several recent ads across the major networks during prime time.

Apparently Universal hasn't given up on it yet.

I watch my share of TV. Also, I work for a radio station, and Universal's publicity (or the firm they hire out) had set up, about 2 weeks ago, interviews with Fillion and Tudyk for our station, to occur today, because they wanted to pimp the 2nd weekend.

First weekend results came in--that offer was shelved. No word back, no response. No interviews. Not even a cancellation notice. And this media outlet isn't the only one.

That, coupled with the DVD release date leaking, and the ads being chokechained pretty severely? You can see why I'm thinking Universal is cutting losses and pushing their chips into the DVD returns circle.

I'm sorta torn. DVD before Christmas is really cool. But the only semi-hope of this story continuing seems to lie down the DTV road.

What a shame. I really think they should have gotten some of the cast onto Leno or Conan (both Universal-owned shows) the first week. Nathan Fillion and Alan Tudyk are both hilarious (judging from their convention appearances) and their wit and charm could potentially have interested people in seeing the movie.