Why some movies turn into hits even when critics hate them

The Hollywood Reporter said there was "little wit or genuine suspense" in "Underworld: Evolution" — and that was among the kinder reviews.

But the critical drubbing didn't stop "Underworld: Evolution" from winning the box-office sweepstakes the weekend it opened.

Nor did the drubbings for "Silent Hill" ("plenty of bad acting, bad dialogue and a confusing plot," said The San Francisco Chronicle); "When a Stranger Calls" ("a frightless, cynically made movie," panned The Boston Globe); or "The Pink Panther" (said The Philadelphia Inquirer: "This joyless affair doesn't have a clou.").

But those movies all won their opening weekend box-office, and it has been the same story almost every weekend this year: With a few exceptions, the film that won favor with audiences was a film critics disliked, and often hated.

That time of year

The late winter/early spring period has a long tradition of being a dumping ground for bad films.

But even compared with other years, it is noteworthy to observe this year's gaping disconnect between what the public wants and what critics think the public should want.

Critics told the public to stay away from "Hostel," "Big Momma's House 2," "Madea's Family Reunion," "Failure To Launch," "Ice Age: The Meltdown" and "Scary Movie 4." By and large, the public ignored the critics.

Even the production companies warned the public about their films by — in ever-increasing numbers — refusing to screen the films in advance for critics, a tacit acknowledgment that their film is bad.

Paul Dergarabedian, president of Exhibitor Relations, a firm that tracks box-office performance, says that since the first of the year, 12 films have not been screened in advance for critics, and five of those have won their weekends.

"This proves something about audiences," Dergarabedian says. "Once they buy off on the marketing concept of the movie, there is very little that can be done to dissuade them from going to a movie."

But studios this year, more and more, are hedging their bets, and making sure that critics don't have the chance to trash their films until after the opening day, he says.

"Studios figure, why bother letting people review them and trash them?" Dergarabedian says.

The big disconnect

David Sterritt, chairman of the National Society of Film Critics, says that when they respond to films, critics and the public are having a "dialogue with Hollywood." Not screening films in advance, Sterritt says, is Hollywood's way of silencing all voices in the dialogue save its own.

"Hollywood always has the upper hand. There's Hollywood, there's the public, there are reviewers. But Hollywood has the power because they have the marketing machine," Sterritt says.

Sterritt says Hollywood gets around critical disdain by promoting films not as artistic statements or entertainment, but as pop-culture events.

"Even people who don't want to see it see it anyway, because people are talking about it," Sterritt says.

Sterritt and Dergarabedian agree that even though the disconnect between critics and the public seems to be widening, it always has existed and always will. This is evident not just regarding "critic-proof" movies — such as horror films, kids' films and films boasting popular stars — but all films, and it has to do with how critics and audiences perceive what is on the screen.

"There always have been certain movies that bridge the gap between audience and critic — 'Forrest Gump,' 'The Sixth Sense,' 'Titanic' — movies that got good reviews and were also big hits," Dergarabedian said. "But generally speaking, there is a disconnect because critics by their very nature are more critical of movies than the average moviegoer."

The critical elite

Jeanine Basinger, head of the film department at Wesleyan University in Middletown, Conn., said critics are perceived as elite, removed from the audience, telling people what to think.

"Increasingly, the film companies are making movies for niche audiences. These audiences are a community, and they see films together as a community," Basinger said. "Most often, the critics don't represent that community."

She cited "Big Momma's House 2" and "Madea's Family Reunion" as films that profited by appealing to the black community, if not to critics.

"So it works out that the film critics' pick is not the film that the public wants to go see," she said. "And the chasm opens up."

Sterritt said the chasm is not only racial but generational.

"A lot of today's moviegoers are young. Critics are really of a pretty old generation," he said.

Dergarabedian says that presenting the review in nontraditional ways can help make audiences more responsive. "Bloggers and online talk and chatter about movies have more of an impact in that way. Readers will see the critic as a peer," he said. "As it is, younger audiences don't see the critic as having same sensibilities that they have."