I remember shortly before the premiere, there was an article about the big upcoming event in one of the local weeklies. One of the local theatres had the option of premiering the film and had declined, and the owner was interviewed saying something to the effect that they can't show films if they can't expect to run them for a decently long period, and after having seen the film, their opinion was that the film just didn't have enough legs to be worth showing.
At the time I was thinking "What?!? There are people ALREADY in line to see it at other theatres! It has such a huge built-in fanbase that even if it were a howling dog of a film, it would still make money!"
Too bad I didn't pay closer heed to that statement. I paid full price, proving my own point, I suppose, but at such a cost.