But, again, the fanboys are a very limited audience. If the Transformers movie had been done to please fanboys only, the main character would have been a robot instead of the American Pie kid.
I agree that slapping a famous director's name to the movie is part of the ad campaign, and in fact that's an advertising move that works very well with word of mouth. I remember when I was in high school a friend said to me "Hey, let's go watch the new Francis Ford Coppola movie". We went, and it turned out to be "Jeepers Creepers" (which is produced by Coppola). The poster had Coppola's name on big letters on top, which is what my friend saw and what got him to suggest the movie to me.
(Incidentally, I liked the movie, but my friend was expecting to see The Godfather VIII and the disappointment made him hate it. I don't think that was the generalized feeling, because Coppola has been a pretty unpopular director for a long time and only film buffs were attracted by his name, but it's an example.)
On a different subject, I'm not sure how well that technique works these days. Before I watched "Hostel", I used to associate Quentin Tarantino's name with good movies. Now that I've seen that turd, I'm more weary of going to the cinema based on a name only. It might just be me, though.
