A friend has just emailed to ask whether I’ve seen “The Da Vinci Code” film, which comes out in three weeks. I haven’t. And as far as I can tell, no screenings of it have been scheduled. (My piece in the WSJ today makes a few modest guesses about some of its content, but focuses mainly on the emerging responses to it.)

Normally, when a film isn’t screened for the media, it’s a sign that the movie stinks, or at least is disappointing, because the studio doesn’t want people like me saying “don’t see the movie” to people like you. I can’t imagine DVC won’t be screened at all, and the filming itself was kept so secret that perhaps this continues to be part of an ingenious marketing strategy. But has anybody thought about the possibility of this movie flopping? It will of course sell a lot of tickets, and there are various kinds of “flops”–from the financially painful “Heaven’s Gate” variety (a true flop) to the didn’t-meet-the-unrealistic-hype variety of “King Kong (not really a flop at all). DVC may very well wind up in this latter category. I suspect that the most common reaction to the movie will be: “It wasn’t as good as the book. ” The second most common reaction will be: “Tom Hanks looks awful in a mullet.” This is not the kind of buzz that Sony Pictures will want.