From Sept. 9, 2006 New York Times:

Shying Away From Degeneracy
By DAN MITCHELL

THE new film “Idiocracy” sounds like a sure winner. It was directed by Mike Judge, creator of the animated TV series “Beavis and Butt-head” and “King of the Hill,” and director of the sleeper movie hit “Office Space.” It stars Luke Wilson. It has received good reviews from the few critics who, despite the efforts of 20th Century Fox, have been able to see it.

So why did Fox, after sitting on the movie for two years before releasing it Sept. 1, decide not to market the film, opting instead to open it quietly in only 130 theaters and then quickly send it to video? Judging by the online reaction, there are at least two possible reasons.

The first is that the film is simply too stark a critique of American culture, or even that it is a cautionary tale about low-intelligence dysgenics (essentially, overbreeding among the stupid). The movie depicts a future in which everyone has become so dense and culturally lowbrow that Mr. Wilson’s character — an average guy from the present day who travels by accident hundreds of years forward in time — is a relative genius. Why, asks David Weigel on Reason magazine’s Hit and Run blog (reason.com), do “movies that exploit dumbed-down American culture get wide releases while a comedy making light of that, by the creator of ‘Beavis and Butt-head,’ is getting canned?”

He points to another blogger, Ilkka Kokkarinen, who writes that the implications of the movie’s theme — flatulence jokes aside — “are so immensely serious that it is simply unimaginable that any studio boss would take the slightest chance of becoming the next Mel Gibson over the idea that society of stupid people is worse than a society of smart people.” (sixteenvolts.blogspot.com) Populists — defenders of the little guy — would not stand for it, Mr. Kokkarinen says.

Others theorize that Fox disowned the film because it makes fun not only of Fox News — the studio’s sister division — but also of Starbucks, Fuddruckers and other companies that may advertise with one or more media outlets of Fox’s owner, the News Corporation.

The blog FishBowlLA quotes Luke Thompson, a movie reviewer for E! Online, as saying, “some of the sponsors may well have been unhappy with the way their products are placed, and made some phone calls to higher-ups” (mediabistro.com).

from FishBowlLA:

Luke Thompson wrote:

It was obvious the studio killed it — usually, movies that don’t screen for the press are promoted up the wazoo with misleading trailers, posters, etc., but this wasn’t promoted at all.

It’s possible Mike Judge or somebody else pissed somebody important off.

Having seen the movie, though, the best theory I have is that some of the sponsors may well have been unhappy with the way their products are placed, and made some phone calls to higher-ups. Carls Jr. is prominently mentioned, featuring their new slogan “Fuck you! I’m eating!”, their “super big-ass fries,” and when one woman is unable to pay for her fries, the Carls Jr. automatic dispenser calls the cops and tells her her children are now the property of Carl’s Jr.

Perhaps closer to home, Fox News features nearly nude anchors and is affiliated with “The Violence Channel.” Though this seems fairly mild compared with the usual critiques of Fox News, sexual content does seem to be considered more of a stigma nowadays.

It may have been a simpler decision than that, like someone just figured they wouldn’t make money from it theatrically — but tonally and in content it’s absolutely in keeping with everything Judge has ever done, most of which has made the money men very happy in the long run.