Filmstalker: Borat screenings axed

Apparently Borat isn't going down as well as we'd been told, particularly with Kazakhstan officials. Now the film has been cut from more than two thousand cinemas in the US because of fears that the film won't be well received - isn't it a bit late in the day to decide that?

According to IMDB:

The movie has already upset politicians in Kazakhstan, who insist the comedian's character paints a terrible picture of their country, and now film distributors in the US fear cinemagoers will find the movie more offensive than funny. The film was scheduled to open in 2,000 cinemas across America on Friday, but it will now bow in only 700. Movie executives at Twentieth Century Fox pulled the plug on the wide opening after the film tested poorly.

Wow, that's a huge reduction and it shows a complete lack of faith in the film. Are we thinking there won't be a sequel and perhaps Sacha Baron Cohen's next character better be a little less offensive to some people?

As I said before, I'm not a big fan of Borat and a few readers popped up to agree. This doesn't hurt me in the slightest, but I suspect it will hurt Cohen somewhat.

What does surprise me is that this decision has been made so late in the day. Were there not test screenings earlier? Did they not have an idea this might happen when the studio and filmmakers saw footage themselves?

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terrible. Borat's the only comedy I'm looking forward to this year!

Posted by: Chris | October 26, 2006 6:45 PM

Surely there are much more better comedies out there than his?

Posted by: Simone | October 26, 2006 9:37 PM

IMDB's news is the worst ever.

They're planning a tiered release pattern, opening it in 800 and then widening it.

A few months ago the movie was only going to be a limited release... it's only because there's so much buzz for it that it's getting this big of an initial release at all.

Posted by: cinemablend | October 26, 2006 9:42 PM

I don't know, I heard some similar comments on the UK news last night. Mind you they were very negative on the film from the word go.

Posted by: Richard Brunton | October 26, 2006 9:49 PM

IMDB gets a lot of their news from UK syndicators like WENN, so I'm not so surprised.

Do they cite any sort of source for their information? Because it sounds like they're reporting on the same press release I got, and just adding made up information to put a negative spin on it.

The didn't even get the number of theaters right. The fact that they said it's getting 700 when it's getting 800 makes me even more suspicious. Like they're trying to minimize the number of theaters it'll be in as much as possible.

Perhaps it's not testing so well in the UK? Now that's a possibility. But everything I've heard from everyone here in the US says it's testing through the roof, and reports I've gotten from people who've gone to screenings keep indicating that the audiences love it...

And at the advance screening I attended the audience went CRAZY for it.

Posted by: cinemablend | October 26, 2006 10:20 PM

I'd be surprised if the UK TV news channels used these sources though, and on IMDB I agree, their news is becoming more and more gossipy and less factual. It just seemed to fit with the TV news I'd heard.

I think there could definitely be a UK negativity, or rather a UK press negativity. I've seen that on the few reports to date about it. They've been quite harsh towards it and the star.

Posted by: Richard Brunton | October 26, 2006 10:27 PM