Reply #39: I know it's wiki p, but I've read this all elsewhere, and it's footnoted (with electrolytes!) [View All]

[Gabi Hayes]

Idiocracy was released as scheduled but only in seven cities (Los Angeles, Atlanta, Toronto, Chicago, Dallas, Houston and Mike Judge's hometown, Austin), and expanded to only 125 theaters, not the usual wide release of 2500-3000 theaters.

According to the Austin American-Statesman<7>, 20th Century Fox, the film's distributor, did nothing to promote the movie — while posters were released to theatres, "no movie trailers, no ads, and only two stills..."<8> and no press kits were released.<9>

The film was not screened for critics.<10> Lack of concrete information from 20th Century Fox led to speculation that Fox may have actively tried to keep the film from being seen by a large audience, while fulfilling a contractual obligation for theatrical release ahead of a DVD release, according to Ryan Pearson of AP.<11>

That speculation was followed by open criticism from Ain't It Cool News, Time Magazine and Esquire Magazine.<12><13><14> In The New York Times Dan Mitchell argued that Fox might be shying away from the cautionary tale about low-intelligence dysgenics.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Idiocracy#Release_issues