Y'all know I love
self-referential movies and books and tv shows and films that break down the fourth wall between the audience and the performer. Therefore I HAD to be onboard with a movie about product placement that financed itself through product placement.
It's a great idea. Maybe not the makings of a great movie though. It's like making sausage, nobody REALLY wants to see the process.
In the director's commentary (by Morgan Spurlock and his writer & producer) it is mentioned that the montage, where Morgan starts cold-calling companies to get somebody interested in sponsoring this movie -- the first company, to get the ball rolling -- in the movie there are about a dozen calls.
In reality, Morgan says, it was between 500 and 600 cold calls before the first breakthrough. You can't show that onscreen. It took nine months.
The show's main sponsor, the above-the-title spot bought by Pom Wonderful for $1 million? There was a contingency clause in the contract that the film had to gross $10 million to get that. In reality it grossed $638,000.
So, the film basically failed its prime objective.
It was not a huge box-office hit, it did not change the practice of product placement, it did not bring fame & fortune to the few brave companies who signed on. Of course the sponsors had him sign non-disparagement clauses so he was diluted from making a hard-hitting exposé of product placement.
But it was a noble attempt, and I enjoyed it.
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