WHY DO PEOPLE WATCH BAD MOVIES? SHARKNADO. Sharknado, a movie, was estimated to have between one and two million viewers on July 11, to have generated over 500,00 Google searches, and to have generated over 5000 Tweets a minute at its peak. (The statistics are from this article on Yahoo by Chris Nichols.) Sharknado is about a bad storm which sweeps up lots of sharks and drops them on Los Angeles. The movie is acknowledged to be a bad movie. This article by Annar Toor on the Verge asks in the headline: “Twitter twister: why did ‘Sharknado’ take a huge bite out of the internet?” In the article Toor says that: “Much of Sharknado’s unexpected popularity could likely be attributed to blind chance, and the unpredictable whims of whatever factors drive viral content.”
This article by Amanda Hess on Pacific Standard recounts an interview she had last April with the head of production at the Asylum, which made Sharknado. She was reporting on an earlier movie made by the Asylum— 2-Headed Shark Attack, starring Carmen Electra.
Amanda Hess included this question and answer from her interview: “The question is: For the love of God, why?
‘The short answer is: We don’t know,’ says David Michael Latt, the Asylum’s co-founder and head of physical production, who pushes as many as 25 films into production each year. ‘It’s not like we said, “There aren’t enough crappy B-level movies out there, so we must corner that market!”’”
I have a theory.