Hollywood Rediscovers an Old Marketing Ploy : Movies: By not allowing critics to see films in advance, studios with potential clunkers on their hands are able to practice damage control during the all-important opening weekend.

Has it come to the point where some movie studios stand to make more money by not showing their movies than by showing them?

That just might be the case when it comes to screening films for critics.

Three films from major distributors open today. Two of them, “Exorcist III” and “My Blue Heaven,” side-stepped the traditional journey to the marquee: they were not made available for viewing ahead of time by critics. The third, Hollywood Pictures’ comedy “Taking Care of Business,” was screened in advance--which means reviews of that film appear today in newspapers across the country.

Depending on the opinions of the assorted reviewers, “Taking Care of Business” may or may not benefit from early screenings.

And therein lies the catch--and the key to a clever marketing ploy: By not allowing critics to see movies in advance, studios with potential clunkers on their hands are able to practice damage control during the all-important opening weekend.

The tactic was put to effective use earlier this summer with “Problem Child.” Produced by Imagine Entertainment, and distributed by Universal Pictures, the comedy about a nightmarish 7-year-old was the first major film of the season that wasn’t screened early for critics.

To the surprise of industry analysts, the film had opening weekend ticket sales of $10 million--ranking third for the weekend, after “Presumed Innocent” and “Ghost.”

Most critics didn’t get to take their whacks until the following week. Though they virtually ganged up on the movie--which Daily Variety dubbed “a serious contender for the worst release of the year by a major distributor”--it was by then being heralded in ad copy as “America’s No. 1 Comedy!”

The film has managed to continue its momentum, grossing $31 million in three weeks.

Universal Pictures declined to discuss its “Problem Child” marketing tactics. But it’s clear that keeping the film from the critics didn’t hurt it at the box office. And the opening weekend marketing campaigns for “Exorcist III” and “My Blue Heaven” are following in its path.

“The idea is to try and cover your bases, and cover your flanks as much as you can. So you go for your target audience,” explained Gordon Armstrong, marketing president for Morgan Creek Productions. Morgan Creek produced “Exorcist III,” which 20th Century Fox is distributing.

Increasingly, Armstrong added, that target audience is 25 and younger. “So I don’t know that reviews are really that important to a film’s success,” he said. “It’s a tragic commentary, but our young people do not really read newspapers.”

A recent study entitled “The Age of Indifference,” sponsored by the Times Mirror Co., parent of The Times, found that Americans 18 to 30 are today far less likely to read a newspaper than their counterparts were a generation ago.

In the case of Morgan Creek’s Billy the Kid saga “Young Guns II”--which got mixed reviews and has earned $21.2 million in two weeks--Armstrong mused, “I don’t know that it was even necessary for us to have screened that movie (in advance). Because I don’t think our target audience bothered to read the reviews.

“They responded to the film’s young stars (a roster of young male heartthrobs), and the subject material and word-of-mouth. And even, I think, to the strong musical score by (rock star) Jon Bon Jovi.”

With a nod to what has been a highly-competitive summer, dominated by high-profile titles, he said: “We want the market to be as clear as it can. What we did was our prerogative. This is nothing new, you know. Studios have done it for years.”

Added Armstrong: “Why contaminate the marketplace with reviews that might not be good? Why not let the public decide whether they enjoy a movie or not?”

Keeping movies under wraps--away from potential critical barbs during the all-important opening weekend--is, indeed, a longtime industry tactic, especially when a studio smells a stinker.

Earlier this year, troubled Orion Pictures released a succession of titles--”Everybody Wins,” “Madhouse,” “The Last of the Finest” and “The First Power”--without advance screenings. Of the quartet, the comedy, “Madhouse,” and the supernatural thriller, “The First Power,” each had opening weekend ticket sales of more than $5 million. Both films went on to outrun the decidedly negative reviews that followed to gross more than $20 million. (“Everybody Wins” and “Last of the Finest” were not so lucky: each grossed less than $2 million.)

As Orion learned, plenty of opening weekend tickets can be sold with exhaustive TV advertising campaigns and trailers of coming attractions.

Spots for “My Blue Heaven” have been running on TV for several weeks; the trailers have been in theaters for months. Directed by Herb Ross from a script by Nora Ephron, clips depict Steve Martin as a mob informant who moves to suburbia under a witness relocation program, where he’s under the watchful eye of federal agent Rick Moranis.

Both Martin and Moranis did interviews to promote the film at a junket held for feature writers. Warner Bros. declined to comment on “My Blue Heaven.”

But William Peter Blatty, the writer-director of “Exorcist III,” is boiling over the decision to keep his movie under wraps. “I guess the thinking is, ‘If it’s a good review, it won’t really help. And if it’s a bad review it might hurt.’ That kind of thinking fills me with consternation,” said Blatty, who also wrote and produced the original film based on his best-selling novel. “It beats the hell out of me why they would make this kind of decision. I guess they’re just afraid of upsetting the apple cart.”

The second sequel to the 1973 landmark shocker (the first was the notorious 1977 bomb, “The Exorcist II: The Heretic”), “Exorcist III,” stars George C. Scott (in the role played by the late Lee J. Cobb in the original film), Jason Miller (returning as Father Damien Karras) and, as new characters, Nicol Williamson and Brad Dourif.

“It’s not a slasher picture, it’s a psychological thriller--a supernatural detective story,” said Blatty, who believes that the film’s “most appreciative” viewers will be from the “mature” segment of the audience.

But according to Armstrong, Morgan Creek is selling the film mainly to the under-30 crowd, which knows the original “Exorcist” from its frequent showings on TV, cable and video and “doesn’t even remember the second one.”

The critics, however, may remember the previous entries. Predicted Armstrong: “They’ll be gunning for us because it’s a sequel. And let’s face it, it’s going to be difficult to get the good reviews and the notoriety that the very first ‘Exorcist’ got.”

He hastened to add that Morgan Creek is “very proud” of “Exorcist III.” “We stand behind it. But we also stand behind the marketing program we’ve come up with. We’re doing this in the best interest of the picture.”

“Don’t think we’re hiding anything,” stressed Carter De Haven, the film’s producer, who claims he originally sought to have a big publicity junket for the movie.

And now? “We’ll know soon enough--in some cases by Saturday or Sunday--if the reviews will be positive or not. If they’re mixed, or negative, we still have a chance to get the people in over the weekend.”