By Joshua Tyler
| Published
Idiocracy is now viewed as one of the funniest and most predictive science fiction movies ever made. But it almost wasn’t. When it was released, Idiocracy was a massive bomb. No one saw it, Idiocracy made no money, and it was gone from theaters in less than a week. You only know it exists now because of the work of fans and Independent Publishers.
Idiocracy’s failure wasn’t an accident. Despite the high potential of Mike Judge’s comedy to become a box office sleeper-hit, 20th Century Fox decided to squash the film before it had a chance, and the reasons behind the mega-company’s decision will likely be very familiar to those of you following along with what Google has done to this website in specific and independent publishing in general.
How Corporate Bias Towards Big Brands Killed Idiocracy
By the time director Mike Judge finished making Office Space, Beavis, and Butthead’s debut was ten years in the rearview, and he had his eye on another project. This time he wanted to make a time travel movie that mocked the current direction of American culture. Fox had already made a lot of money working with Mike Judge, so they gave him funding to make it.
Judge called his new comedy movie, Idiocracy.
How Fox Destroyed Mike Judge’s Movie, On Purpose
With a smart script, Mike Judge at the helm, and a major film studio backing it, Idiocracy seemed primed to make an impressive theatrical run. There was only one big problem: 20th Century Fox decided to destroy the movie—on purpose.
It was in March 2005 that things first started to go wrong. Idiocracy was screened for test audiences, and the reactions were so poor that 20th Century Fox ordered a wave of reshoots that would push back the film’s release date indefinitely.
By April 2006, Judge had the Fox team comfortable enough with the film to announce a September 2006 release. Fox agreed to release it, likely because they were contractually required to. That contract didn’t require them to do anything else.
When the movie’s September 1, 2006 release date rolled around, Idiocracy was dead on arrival. Fox made sure of that by releasing it in only 130 theaters nationwide, to an audience that didn’t know it existed.
Fox never marketed the movie. At all. Idiocracy never even got a movie trailer.
The only promotional material anyone had seen was two low-resolution pictures, which a handful of independent sites, like Cinema Blend, found and did their best to showcase. It wasn’t much to work with.
People can’t go see a movie if they don’t know it exists. And no one knew Idiocracy existed.
Killing Idiocracy
I knew it existed only because I was deeply involved in covering Mike Judge for my first independent entertainment news site, Cinema Blend. Very few other sites, and especially not the big brand corporate ones, were talking about Judge’s next movie, at all.
Idiocracy was not screened in advance for critics, so the day it was released, I drove to the only Dallas, Texas theater showing it, intending to buy a ticket. The movie wasn’t listed on the theater’s marquee, and the ticket seller looked confused when I asked to pay him so I could see it. He had to check with his manager, before taking my cash (people were still using those green paper things back then) and letting me in.
The hallway marker designating which theater Idiocracy was playing in, looked as though it had been printed out on the Cinemark theater manager’s personal inkjet. The theater where the movie played was empty, I watched it alone and laughed all by myself.
Two days later, that Cinemark stopped showing the movie altogether. It didn’t last a week, but it was hilarious, and the dozen or so people who actually saw it, loved it.
My review was one of only 5 posted on the internet and accounted for on Rotten Tomatoes. Only three of those reviews were positive; predictably, the most negative one was from one of the two big brand outlet that did review it, the stuffy critic over at Entertainment Weekly.
Idiocracy ended its theatrical run after one week, grossing under $500,000 at the global box office.
Fox Destroyed Idiocracy For The Same Reason Google Is Destroying Independent Publishers
Fox killed its own movie. Why? Most people now believe they were afraid of upsetting their corporate partners.
Throughout Idiocracy, corporate America is framed as the main antagonist and the primary reason for the anti-intellectual culture that ruined the world. The movie takes some pretty vicious swings at companies like Starbucks.
In the future, Starbucks has stopped serving coffee and has started serving blowjobs. Costco is now its own city-state.
President Dwayne Elizondo Mountain Dew Camacho, played by Terry Crews, embodies this corporate mockery. He’s a former pro wrestler and porn star who delivers over-the-top and idiotic speeches while he addresses the nation and fires off machine guns.
In a 2018 interview with GQ, Terry Crews admitted that real-life advertisers poured money into the movie, thinking that they would receive a positive portrayal. They were shocked when they realized that Idiocracy turned their businesses into full-release massage parlors and then blamed them for destroying the entire world.
If Crews is right, then that confirms Fox was terrified of upsetting their business buddies but also contractually required to release the film. So they released it, while also doing everything they could to make sure no one saw it. All in an effort to avoid making big brands mad.
Ironically, this was the same excuse Google recently gave independent websites, when asked why they give old media outlets preferential treatment. Some things, never change.
Mike Judge Still Won’t Say Anything Bad About Fox
Taking a more diplomatic approach, Mike Judge usually points to the film’s poor test screenings as the reason Idiocracy never received a Starbucks-style full release. Judge also says Fox always believed that the movie would eventually become a cult classic with audiences.
I’m not sure I buy it. He sounds like a man trying not to piss off his corporate partners.
However, it is true that Idiocracy soon became a cult classic, no thanks to Fox.
How Independent Publishers Teamed Up With Fans To Save Idiocracy
The few independent websites that did review Idiocracy, worked hard to spread the word. When Idiocracy came out on DVD, independent site supporting readers who’d seen places like Cinema Blend raving about it for months, picked up a copy and gave it a chance.
Those people watched the DVD, laughed themselves silly, and became instant converts. They shared Idiocracy with their friends and their friends shared it with their friends.
Thanks to all that organic sharing of Mike Judge’s movie and the support of independent entertainment sites, now nearly everyone knows that Idiocracy is a time-traveling work of genius.
You’ll even see praise from those same big media brands who ignored it, back when they would have had to actually pay to see it.
Would Idiocracy have become a cult classic without independent media? It’s amazing and I’d like to think so, but the movie was so completely buried by Fox that it’s hard to know.
What we do know is that it’s a scenario unlikely to repeat again, as Google continues to shadowban independent media and small publishers, running them off the internet.
Mike Judge’s Journey To Idiocracy
To understand what happened to Idiocracy, you need to understand the time travel movie’s creator, Mike Judge.
In 1993, Judge scored his first big break with the debut of Beavis and Butthead. It was an animated MTv hit about two teenage boys who aren’t exactly the cream of the crop and always seem to find themselves in trouble. In between making fun of MTV music videos, of course.
The show became something of a lightning rod for controversy, especially from watchdog groups, giving Beavis and Butthead its counterculture reputation and launching the career of its creator. Judge found more success after the TV show when Beavis and his buddy got a box office hit movie called Beavis and Butthead Do America.
Soon after, Mike Judge launched a popular animated series called King of the Hill on Fox. On a roll, he shifted to live-action by writing and directing the funniest workplace comedy movie of all time in Office Space. He got Jennifer Aniston to co-star in it, one of her first significant movie roles.
Mike Judge was on a roll when he decided to make Idiocracy in 2005. Now he’s so traumatized by the whole experience that he can barely talk about it.
Idiocracy Visits A Future Filled With Stupid
Beginning in the year 2005, Idiocracy centers on Luke Wilson’s Joe Bauers, the most remarkably average member of the United States Army. Joe is upset to learn he’s being removed from his position as a military librarian to participate in a government-sanctioned hibernation experiment. He’s joined in the experiment by a prostitute named Rita, presumably recruited because she’ll do anything for money.
Joe entered the experiment with an assurance it would only last a year. Unfortunately, the government forgot about the project after its lead researcher was incarcerated for illicit activities. Joe awakens 500 years later in a world drastically different from the one he remembers. Mostly, it’s different because, due to idiots overbreeding, everyone in the world is very, very stupid.
In the future, the number 1 movie in America is called Ass, and that’s all it was for 90 minutes. One butt, on screen, the entire time. It won eight Oscars that year, including best screenplay.
The crops are all dying because they’re watering them, with energy drinks. The English language has deteriorated into a hybrid of hillbilly, valleygirl, inner-city slang, and various grunts.
Joe, once viewed as an average guy, is now a genius.