Bad Marketing and Transcendence

Transcendence, a 'Nolan-associated' film I was in high anticipation of, has finally released
to a slew of scathing reviews and bad returns.

I haven't seen the film yet so I won't write about it as such, I have read the script though.
#I have seen the film now and, although slow and underwhelming, I enjoyed it.

The denied secret fact of the movie business is:
marketing is the key to success
(another being: a recognisable brand helps alot.. and another being: most people aren't drawn to
unusual face types)

It is not my job to give you numbers (I'm not a journalist, I say what I think about stuff) because it is logical and proven: so you can expect that the numbers are there.
Bad movies can only make megabucks when they have huge marketing campaigns (think (not see) Transformers, Harry Potter, Paranormal Activity and Twilight to name a few). In fact, any movie with a huge marketing budget easily makes it back tenfold.
Advertisements can actually serve to make a movies shiteness less shocking.

A major part of big-budget (and low-budget) marketing is the paying or sweetening up of journalists for assurance that a movie will be reviewed positively by the loudest voices.
"I'm watching The Amazing Spiderman 2 right now and Dane DeHaan is awful"

I haven't seen much Transcendence advertising and, to be honest, the attempts I have seen were unimpressive and misleading. I'm sure if Transcendence would have been marketed better it could have been received well. It is not an action movie as the ads lead people to believe, nor is it typical Hollywood fodder. I've read the script, its a sweet story, and I expect to see a talking piece for the most part. If the film was advertised as such, I doubt critics would have been so disappointed.

Unless the film is 'word-of-mouth' great or something everyone just needs to see because of some irresistible artwork on a poster, if your movie hasn't got an international marketing budget of more than 3 (damn, ten) million dollars it will not be received with appropriate expectations, seen by that many people or make much money. Still make it though...