How many of you watched the premiere of Sharknado (review here) on SyFy Channel last night? Well, it seems you were not alone as social media outlet Twitter was all abuzz with fans tweeting about the film. The film that’s so-bad-it’s-good drew a fair amount of people watching, although the full ratings have yet to come in. Everyone including celebrities were tweeting about the ridiculousness on screen. Even though I had seen the movie a couple of weeks ago, I still wanted to watch it again.
UPDATE: Sharknado draws 1.4 million viewers, which is on par with other SyFy Original movies. SyFy will rebroadcast Sharknado on Thursday July 18th. Producers eyeing possible sequel.
Thomas Vitale, executive vp programming and original movies at Syfy says in response to the chances of a sequel or a follow up to Sharknado:
Everyone — my mom, dad, wife, my kids have asked me that question. Everyone at the office and obviously the producers. The truth is that this has all happened so quickly. It’s been such a whirlwind day. We’ve had a lot of meetings, emails. I’m not being coy, [but] that’s obviously being talked about. There may be some kind of announcement coming forth but there’s nothing going to be announced now just because we haven’t had real discussions with the real people we have to talk to about that.
The Los Angeles Times reports, “Sharknado,” Syfy’s latest shlocky made-for-TV guilty pleasure, hit social media Thursday night like, well, a swirling cyclone of bloodthirsty fish.
Yet another offering from the minds who brought us “Dinoshark,” “Sharktopus” and “Mega Shark Versus Crocosaurus,” “Sharknado” also benefited from the presence of at least two past-their-prime actors, starlet-turned-party-girl Tara Reid and “Beverly Hills 90210’s” resident bro, Ian Zeiring. And, well, it’s the summer and there isn’t much else on.
The combination of an absurd yet self-evident premise, a clumsy portmanteau title, visual effects that would leave Ed Wood embarrassed, and D-list stars proved to be the perfect storm for Twitter snarking, with seemingly everyone — or at least seemingly everyone related somehow to the media industry — weighing in on the campy spectacle.
“Lost” writer Damon Lindelof live-tweeted the movie, at one point joking, “I am going to write the Sharknado sequel and I am going to do it before Shaknado is over.” NBC’s Chuck Todd observed, “I follow about a thousand folks. Every one of them tweeting about SharkNado.”
A brief glance at Twitter metrics (via the website Topsy) reveal just what a viral sensation “Sharknado” was Thursday night, seeming to arise from nowhere at precisely 9 p.m. EDT. (It remains to be seen whether social media buzz translates into actual ratings. The preliminary Nielsen report indicates that in this case, it didn’t, but more will be known later today when firmer numbers are released.)
The film’s director, Anthony Ferrante, even remarked on the social media frenzy: “i have never been part of something this crazy … the whole world is watching my insane little movie and talking about it.”
Watch the trailer here,
