The Boycott Against Miramax Films for their treatment of The Crow: Salvation

The original ad for boycott done by Corvus of The Crow: A Dead Man Visits You

In September 2000, shortly after Miramax Films sent The Crow: Salvation to Spokane to die, CrowFans.com launched a boycott along with several other webmasters from other crow-related websites. Below is a copy of the original press release.

"CrowFans.com launches a boycott against Miramax Films

CrowFans.com has decided to boycott Miramax Films for not releasing The Crow: Salvation starring Eric Mabius, Kirsten Dunst, and Fred Ward nationwide to theatres and their lack of promotion for the test run in Spokane, WA.

Miramax sent the film to Spokane, WA to one theatre for a one week test run to see if it warrants a nationwide release. Miramax Films spent very little in advertising only a dinky newspaper ad, zero radio and tv ads. Miramax programmed the movie for failure and sent it up to Spokane to die.

Miramax films is one of the prime R-rated film distributors. Thus, they could potentially be very susceptible to political pressure. Crow fans should not allow Miramax to throw away The Crow: Salvation for the sake of avoiding congressional coercion.

Fans of The Crow can let their voice be heard at http://boycott.crowfans.com/, and they can find how to help get The Crow: Salvation in theatres and to contact Miramax."

While the boycott did make a lot of noise it was ultimately unsuccessful and The Crow: Salvation went straight to video on March 20, 2001. CrowFans.com also ended up working with Miramax to help promote The Crow DVD Box Set. Here is a copy of the statement on why it happened.

"What happened to the boycott, and why is CrowFans.com starting to promote the box set?

We already know some people will not be pleased with this, but atleast you guys will know the truth, and hopefully you guys can atleast try and understand. We understand that you may or may not agree with our decision. We have been working with Miramax Home Video lately to help promote the upcoming Crow DVD Box Set.

However we were asked to drop the boycott by them, along with other people who are involved behind the scenes. We had to think about it, but we also realized the boycott was dying off anyway since we were not getting any mainstream press. Not like New York Times is going to run a negative article on one of their biggest advertisers. Now we couldn't shut down the boycott site completely, that would be wrong to all the fans and crow webmasters who helped support and promote it, so we left the site up and handed it to over to Corvus of The Crow: A Dead Man Visits You. Eventually the site will be shut down.

Does that mean we agree with their treatment of the fans and the test run in Spokane ? No, we were quite blunt with them about that, but we also understand it was a business decision and they wanted to focus their energy and promotion on a box set. Honestly we don't think Miramax will be distributing the fourth crow film The Crow: Lazarus, we think the box set is the end of the line in the relationship between Pressman Films and Miramax.

One of the concessions made to us during our phone conversation with Miramax is the boycott and the letter writing campaign did put pressure on them to do a really good job on the box set. Otherwise the box set would have been released at the end of January, and would have been done half ass far as features and such go. Good things come to those who wait right? We mainly dropped the boycott to focus on positive things instead of being negative, the media seems to love negative things, how often do you hear something positive in the newspaper? Hardly ever, because bad news sells.

--- Staff of CrowFans.com"

Well I guess we were wrong about The Crow: Salvation being the end of the line between Pressman Films and Miramax/Dimension, The Crow: Wicked Prayer was released direct to video by Dimension Home Video.

Some publicity the boycott site got from Magazines

Spin Magazine - January 2001


Well atleast they got the URL to the Boycott site right.

Wizard Magazine - Issue 112 - January 2001
There is an error in this article though.

Pressman Films I'm sure knew of the boycott, I know Jeff Most did, but by no means did they ever endorse it or stood behind it.

Here is a copy of some of the articles that websites wrote about the boycott.

Comics2Film - 9/25/2000

According to The Hollywood Reporter, The Crow: Salvation will most likely be denied a wide theatrical release. A representative for Dimension Films told the trade that the dismal response to the recent test screening in Spokane, Washington has the studio shopping the film to cable outlets.

However, fans at the CrowFans.com website are eager to pin the blame on poor promotion for the film on the part of Miramax. With that in mind CrowFans is encouraging a boycott. Here's an excerpt from their press release:

"Miramax sent the film to Spokane, WA to one theatre for a one week test run to see if it warrants a nationwide release. Miramax Films spent very little in advertising. [They ran] only a dinky newspaper ad, zero radio and TV ads. Miramax programmed the movie for failure and sent it up to Spokane to die.

"Miramax films is one of the prime R-rated film distributors. Thus, they could potentially be very susceptible to political pressure. Crow fans should not allow Miramax to throw away The Crow: Salvation for the sake of avoiding congressional coercion.

"Fans of The Crow can let their voice be heard at http://boycott.crowfans.com/, and they can find how to help get The Crow: Salvation in theatres and to contact Miramax."

Sci-Fi Channel - 09/26/2000
Fans Blast Studio Over Crow

Upset about Miramax's decision to shop The Crow: Salvation to cable networks, fans of the fantasy revenge movie series are trying to organize a boycott of the Disney-owned studio. Sponsors of the CrowFans.com Web site are urging fans to boycott Miramax movies and to write to the studio to protest the handling of the latest installment of the Crow franchise.

Fans feel that the studio sponsored a one-week test screening at a single theater in Spokane, Wash., simply as an excuse to avoid a theatrical release of the film. The Crow: Salvation drew few viewers in its test run, and fans say that studio set it up to fail by not advertising or promoting it. Fans also suggest that Miramax is trying to avoid congressional pressure against violent films by burying Salvation either on cable TV or on video.

The Crow: Salvation stars Eric Mabius, Kirsten Dunst and Fred Ward.

TeleText UK - 09/27/2000
Crow fans livid with Miramax

Fury has erupted among fantasy film fans at Miramax's decision to sell The Crow: Salvation straight to cable TV and sidestep the cinemas.

Such is the anger that a website is dedicated to persuading people to boycott Miramax films and write to the studio about the matter.

They suspect Miramax wants to "bury" the film because of political pressure against violent movies.

The film was test-run in Spokane, Washington and, as a result, Miramax decided it didn't warrant general release.

But Crow fans claim the company's bid to promote the film was a charade.

Boycott.crowfans.com/ says: "They didn't spend any money on radio or TV ads. They called a dinky ad in the paper a promotion." The site wants to get the film into cinemas.

The Crow (1994) is a favourite with gothic fantasy movie fans - and gained mythic status with the death of its star Brandon Lee on set.

In The Crow: Salvation Alex Corvis returns to the world of the living to solve a young woman's murder of which he's been wrongly accused.

DailyRadar - 09/27/2000
Crow Fans Plan Boycott Against Disney

Call it misguided, delusional and twisted, but the fans of The Crow franchise are planning their revenge against the Mouse.

Here's the backstory: After a poor performance during a one-week test screening, Miramax, a subsidiary of Walt Disney, has decided to shop The Crow: Salvation to cable networks instead of going for a big-screen release. Fans are claiming the studio set the film up to fail, as it was only tested in one theater in Spokane, Washington -- and few Crow fanatics were invited to the event. Additionally, organizers of the boycott claim Miramax is bowing down to the congressional bullying against violent movies.

The CrowFans.com website is urging fans to write pleading letters to the studio. Hey guys, we're got two words for you: Highlander: Endgame.