rosie o'donnell on the million dollar pyramid

The only other instance of a media personality with a sizable platform purposely spoiling a film, pre-social media, occurred in 2004 when Million Dollar Baby was released, according to Greene. “We had a number of commentators, not film critics … who were openly antagonistic, despairing, trying to shoot down the movie before it opened.” Getting the audience to go see the movie was a different thing,” says Mechanic, now CEO of Pandemonium Films. And the second thing: The movie didn’t depend on the surprise ending.

“Two things: It was a younger demographic, so going to the housewives during the day on that movie couldn’t have mattered less. (The film would go on to find a massive audience on home video, with its DVD proving revolutionary given its vast array of extra content, including multiple commentary tracks). Still, Bill Mechanic, who was running Fox at the time and greenlit Fight Club, maintains O’Donnell’s stunt was not the reason the pic struggled at the box office, where it grossed an underwhelming $100.8 million globally.

But the deal was, she gave away the ending on national television. It struck some nerve whether she wanted to look at it or not. She was saying, ‘This movie disturbed me,’ she could not sleep for nights. On the 2000 DVD commentary track for Fight Club, Pitt, who played Tyler Durden, said of O’Donnell, “I guess that is OK she hated it. But “even if their cause is a noble one, there are certainly other ways to deliver their message.” Also, the Basic Instinct protests were small potatoes compared to O’Donnell’s millions of viewers. The activists were “trying to bring about social change,” Greene says. The activists would yell the ending of Basic Instinct, revealing the murderer’s identity to people waiting in line to buy tickets. In 1992, a coalition of women’s and gay rights activists sought out theaters showing Basic Instinct to protest the way lesbian and bisexual characters were portrayed in film. Purposely spoiling a film to hurt it at the box office had only occurred once before O’Donnell’s stunt, according to Greene.

Rosie o'donnell on the million dollar pyramid