Anne Thompson has written an impassioned post, defending Michael Clayton against Warner Brothers’ mismanagement:

What makes me crazy is that the studio had a well-reviewed, smart-house, classy movie that played well for the Academy and cost only $22 million. That’s peanuts to a studio like Warners and there was no earthly reason to go wide! They could have let those per-screen averages play out slowly over time, kept the movie simmering in a successful mode, and widened gradually, keeping the Oscar race in mind. This is the kind of movie that builds and finds an audience. As long as it’s successful, all well and good. But taint it with a 4th-place weekend and you’ve got the perception of damaged goods.

I haven’t seen Clayton yet, but from what I can tell, she’s totally right: this is the kind of movie that needs to play small for a few weeks, adding cities and screens bit by bit, so that coastal, early-adopting grown-ups have a chance to see and spread the word to their peers.

It’s so strange that Warner Brothers keeps bungling like this. Just take a look at the Warner Brothers tag on this blog, and it’s just one stupid scandal and/or mistake right after another. They either failed to sufficiently support Jesse James out of apathy, or they deliberately sabotaged its release. They let Nikki Finke’s “Robinov hates women” meme spread unchallenged for days before issuing a denial. And now they’re letting what should have been an easy (if slow-burning) prestige hit fall to their impatience. This is where I break into the Jerry Seinfeld voice in order to say, “What is the deal, with Warner Brothers?” And with sure-to-be gems like Man Wich in the pipeline, can it really get better before it gets worse?