I'm wondering what the "noble message" is in "Confessions of a Shopaholic."

The trailers for the 3 dramas felt more like the fake trailers at the beginning of Tropic Thunder, only not funny.

Shopaholic would have done much better had it not been released during the worst recession since WWII.

Well, personally, I didn't see any of those movies because none of them seemed particularly fun or intriguing.

I don't think Duplicity was a well intentioned message movie ... it was a twisty romantic mystery, is my understanding.

Part of the problem with that film is that I felt it was marketed all wrong, the trailers made it look like a romantic comedy, when in fact it was a smartened up, smaller version of Mr & Mrs Smith (so I was told) ... had it been marketed like that, I think it would have done better.

Just my opinion, of course.

Isn't the first quarter a dumping ground for studios (other than Valentine's day)? Where they release films they either think aren't very good or are hard to market? And didn't this become the norm because there was less of an audience to grab?

I didn't see any of these four movies because none of them appealed to me, and judging by the reveiws, a lot of people agreed.

I agree that Shopaholic feels completely different from the other three and also chalk its mediocre performance (if it is, indeed, mediocre - $100M internationally doesn't sound too bad to me) up to its being released just as every media outlet started running photos of bread lines.

The Soloist, in my opinion, had big marketing problems - I saw the trailer way too many times and over too long a period - I knew something had to be terribly wrong with it if it was getting held back like that. Also, it looked hokey. (Sorry, Joe Wright, I really loved Atonement!)

State of Play looked too familiar, and not very cinematic - I felt like I could watch that on my couch without missing anything.

And Duplicity? They had my money from the first time I saw the trailer, but it definitely wasn't ever going to be a four-quadrant movie. They should have figured out how to do it on a smaller budget. Speaking of which, Scott, do you think they really, honestly made it for $60M? And that's exclusive of marketing, right? So they're still pretty far in the hole....

One thing The Soloist and State of Play's trailers had in common was a lack of sizzle. There was nothing there I needed to see on the big screen.

The only one of those that I've seen is Duplicity, which I enjoyed. I think all these movies are a victim of the recession.
Shopaholic - people are being forced to move away from consumerism right now and don't want to be reminded that they had to give up recreational shopping. And maybe it was a bad movie, too.
Soloist and State of Play are too serious -- people want lighter fare right now since their own lives are so heavy.
Duplicity has a lighter tone, but still requires the audience to think and pay attention to keep up, which people don't want to do right now. When I went on opening night, the screening was sold out. But that could have just been stir-crazy Minnesotans looking to get out of the house.

It's unfortunate for all these movies since they've been in the pipeline for 2 - 3 years.

I equate the feel of the Soloist (from the trailers) to that of The Visitor, writ/dir by Tom McCarthy - it's not going to make a ton of money, but maybe it'll bring in that Oscar nom.

I think people might finally be tired of the chic lit adaptations - especially after the Devil Wears Prada and The Nanny Diaries were good *but* did not live up to the books. Confessions just came across as having too much fluff. I don't think it really had anything to do with consumerism.

I saw Duplicity and loved it. It was great. I didn't follow its returns, so I've been surprised to see it pop up as a disappointment in various articles recently.

I agree with Olive and Trina about State of Play. While the cast are all excellent actors, it didn't seem different enough from what we've seen before. Another government cover up movie. Ok.