Apr 16 2009Everyone Keeps Renting 'Crash'
In another upset win, the Chicago Tribune is reporting Crash, the 2005 Academy Award-winning film, is the most queued and received film in the NetFlix catalog:
[S]ince its DVD debut in September 2005, "Crash" has remained Netflix's No. 1 rented movie—much to the delight and confusion of its director, Paul Haggis."I just assumed it was some sort of anomaly," Haggis told the Tribune recently. "I have no idea why anyone went to the movie in the first place, let alone rent it. It was a little independent film, and when people started to see it, I was amazed."
But "Crash's" reign at Netflix is no anomaly, says spokesman Steve Swasey, just hard numbers. More customers have put the movie in their queues and received it, on a weekly basis, than any other film. ( Carol Stream is home to one of Netflix's distribution hubs.)
"It's been out so long, it adds to the demand for people wanting to see it," Swasey said.
Too bad there's no data for how many times a Netflix-received movie has spurred the reaction, "God, I guess I did queue this up at some point. Why did I think I wanted to see this? Because it won an Oscar? Put that back in the mailbox; I need that final disc of Six Feet Under." I bet Crash is ranking pretty high in that category too.
(via Cinematical)
Reader Comments
1. Daniel - April 16, 2009 1:50 PM
Paul Haggis is a scientologist. Enough said.
2. net war - April 16, 2009 1:52 PM
I disagree with every thing except for this statement.
3. skeps - April 16, 2009 1:56 PM
God and that movie sucked too. And I'm a fan of the genre, but man that movie was so fake and pretentious.
4. Erica - April 16, 2009 1:57 PM
Are we expected to believe Haggis wrote a schmaltzy, sappy, patriotic P.O.S. all in an independent vein? He knew that the academy would eat that sh!t up.
5. Erik - April 16, 2009 2:06 PM
Uggghh, I've never hated a film more in my entire life. The plotlines were contrived and predictable, the writing unbelievable, and the obvious racist quips by the various actors in the film could be seen a mile down the road.
This movie blew.
Want to see a good film about race, go rent Grand Canyon.
6. Matthew Lenz - April 16, 2009 2:25 PM
I really didn't enjoy Crash. It felt incredibly fake throughout.
7. Tooom - April 16, 2009 4:44 PM
"I have no idea why anyone went to the movie in the first place." - Paul Haggis
Also: http://videogum.com/archives/the-hunt-for-the-worst-movie-of-all-time/the-hunt-for-the-worst-movie-o-18_013771.html
8. Dogless - April 16, 2009 5:00 PM
I've removed crash from my Netflix queue based on the above articles and comments.
I don't know why it was there in the first place.
BTW, was it on my queue, or in my queue?
9. PropaGanja - April 17, 2009 4:22 AM
Aren't people just confused and wanting to rent the David Cronenberg version instead? Nothing like a good portion of car crash porn to spice up your Saturday night? Imagine the let down after people started actually watching the movie and expecting James Spader and Holly Hunter fornicating in crashed cars and actually getting this Haggis POS (although this version also has a car crash right? But not much fornicating)
10. Adam - April 17, 2009 5:03 AM
Yeah...it was a little indie movie, that's right. A 6.5 million-dollar little indie movie.
11. Valkyrie - April 17, 2009 12:00 PM
One reason why I never see these types of movies is because it's always as realistic as Keanu Reeves' acting and as subtle as a Madonna's crotch.
This movie is probably preachy and been done better before. Or like a John Singleton movie, who I find predictable and boring.
Spader and Hunter 4 TEH WIN!!
12. proteon - April 17, 2009 1:15 PM
It was pretentious crap but the scene with the little girl and the bullet proof cloak I dug.
13. c45 - April 17, 2009 11:50 PM
i think i remember seeing on the old blockbuster site, that crash was also the most rented movie with blockbusters online rental service...
14. Lindsay - April 18, 2009 2:14 PM
jesus that movie was terrible... what the hell does this say about all those people?
i guess they like terrible writing, bad acting, overly-connected storylines, empty dialogue, obvious things, predictable plots, ludacris, films starring ludacris, people who write movies in two hours (really.), forced morality, exaggerated states of being, a world where all people are senseless stereotypes, aaand oh yeah... why did this movie win an oscar?
hollywood gets away with murder...!
15. Dan - April 21, 2009 3:31 PM
Once it hit #1 it had the advantage of being the #1 movie anytime people were looking at the top movies for something new to rent. People assume #1 must mean good so they add it to their queue. Infinity. Also known as the event horizon of laziness.