The studio poorly marketed the film because they ignorantly thought all the marketing was built in with the internet fervor. I've met dozens of people who didn't even hear about the film until it dropped. All the internet shit just got the geeks and college students into the theater, but when a quarter of the country doesn't even own a computer (let alone go digging for fansites), how the hell are they supposed to hear about it without copious commercials, interviews and posters? One interview with Jackson on the Daily Show ain't gonna cut it. The studio got cheap on the back end of the film and they fucked themselves over. You're right in that the hype had a hand in the poor ticket sales, but only because the studio didn't utilize the hype.

Mech