Nikki Finke has a very surprising write-up about how the movie Bandslam (starring Vanessa Hudgens, Aly Michalka, and Gaelan Connell) is an excellent example of how a great movie can suffer from poor marketing.

I thought Bandslam was simply another movie similar to High School Musical because of the way the trailers showed Vanessa Hudgens up front and center. But it turns out that Bandslam is much more than just a typical teen feel-good flick. It’s an indie movie with an incredible soundtrack that has been buried by critics and potential viewers because many are turned off by the fact that it looks like another Disney film when it is far from it. I mean, just look at how the marketing folks behind this film put Vanessa up front and center on the movie poster above! Even I dismissed the film for being another Disney dud after seeing the poster.

Folks close to the film are now saying that Summit Entertainment has failed incredibly at making this movie appeal to a wider audience and that there’s no way of going back at this point. So sad. Maybe I’ll go and watch this now though now that I know this.