I have a hard time working up much outrage for this one. After all, the book had been out for good while before the movie was made. I’m treading into a whole different argument, though, right?

On the other hand, I do get annoyed when a magazine like Entertainment Weekly casually spoils movies (and teevee shows, though I can’t whine about that category as much), presuming everyone reading the magazine went out and saw it on opening weekend – much like the comment above about 12:01 Wednesday for comics.

Personally, I really, really don’t want Deathly Hallows spoiled right away, since I’m going on the road on the 20th, and I’ll have to scrounge a copy somewhere that weekend. I figure the longer I wait, the greater my chances are of getting spoiled.

In regards to the Midnight release, I agree with Dani. I did it once, with my sister and niece, for Phoenix. Once was enough for me. But the appeal is something I can’t disagree with. I just don’t need it myself.

As for “famous” spoilers, I read that Peanuts strip as a kid. It did spoil the movie for me, but it also made the strip that much funnier. In regards to “Psycho,” I had it spoiled a couple of years before I saw it by Donnie “Ralph Malph” Most on Happy Days. He spoils several movies the Cunninghams are thinking about seeing.

The earliest examples of the word spoiler being used among nerds was in this Usenet thread from 1980 -> http://tinyurl.com/234e6d

If people don’t want to know, then don’t go to the sites where people are going to talk about it.

Sometimes it’s hard to avoid, though. In the case of Presumed Innocent, I remember a radio host revealed the twist on-air shortly after the movie came out. He got plenty of complaints, and apologized on air the next day… by saying, “I’m sorry I revealed that it was so-and-so,” thus managing to spoil it again for anyone who had missed the first round.

I’m currently trying to decide just how much to post on my Flash fan site. It’s mainly a reference site, and I’m caught between the “Why don’t you have anything on Flash #13/JLA #10″ camp and the theoritical camp that only hits the comic store once a month and avoids forums.

I think a month or two of silence is fine for a movie, maybe 2 weeks for a comic.

I totally remember that cartoon! Though I’d already seen the film, so it didn’t ruin my world.

I, too, was a wee lad eagerly awaiting The Empire Strikes Back when Marvel released their adaptation days early. In my case, it was MY OWN MOTHER who, at the dinner table, said, “I read in the NY Post today that Darth Vader is Luke Skywalker’s father.” I went into the movie trying to pretend that maybe it wasn’t true, that the newspaper had just gotten a rumor wrong.

But I find that people only spoil certain things but not others. For example, with Empire Strikes Back, people may have spoiled about Luke’s parentage, but not about the dramatic way it was done. Or with the bit with Dumbledore in Harry Potter 6 with the dramatic parts that Malfoy and Snape played in it. Metaphorically, spoilers only go for the exclamation points but not for the sentences and paragraphs leading up to it.

BadMike: I spoiled JEDI for myself (at the age of 10) by reading the novelization before seeing the movie. Why? I have no idea. But isn’t it strange that novelizations and comics adaptations used to come out so far in advance of the film? (Maybe novelizations still do. I wouldn’t know.) Things sure were different back then! And the cars were bigger, too.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gBEOauyrpWs

I remember waiting on line 7 hours to see Empire, and as we were walking in this woman was walking out “you’ll never guess who Luke’s father is! Darth Vader!!!”

Wanted to kill her.

There’s a whole group of films that I’ll never watch because what’s the point when the whole movie hinges on a twist ending that’s already been ruined. And another group that I’ll watch anyway because they’re well made even though they’ve been spoiled for me. Sigh.