The “Spinal Tap” sequel opens tonight in previews, mostly against heavily promoted and raved about “Downton Abbey” finale.
They don’t share much of an audience so maybe counter programming will help them both.
The difference is while “Downtown Abbey” had splashy premieres and lots of studio support, “Spinal Tap II: The End Continues” is kind of escaping into release. A quiet premiere in LA, and so little press availability that today there are only 42 reviews on Rotten Tomatoes, most of them from bloggers.
The score so far is 74. Not great, but could be worse, and a lot of fans of the 1984 original seemed to like it.
There is literally no advance sale for tonight’s previews in most New York theaters, with one or two scattered tickets checked off. Did Bleecker Street just run out of money? (Sony Pictures has international rights but so far this year all of their releases have been stiffs.)
I’ve done everything but send bagpipers into the Bleecker Street Film offices to provoke them, but there’s no response. I have a feeling “Spinal Tap II” will have a short theatrical run and then head to streaming. I’ll see it in December, maybe, which is too bad because I’m sure it’s funny.
What happened to the movie? Why has there been so little advertising? The biggest publicity was all the members of the band appearing on Jimmy Kimmel a few nights ago, and performing one of their “hits.” But that didn’t register much. Neither did having Paul McCartney and Elton John in cameos.
The original “This is Spinal Tap” remains one of the great comedy classics, directed also by Rob Reiner. That will never go away.
