Thinking upon a director such as Edgar Wright whose first few movies, while considered classics of the 2000s, in part became classics due to buzz around the internet. Without that buzz, would studio executives have not noticed Wright's talent leading him to helm such projects as Ant Man and Baby Driver.

This then begs another question. What films land filmmakers who helm forgotten cult classics lost out on careers due to the absence of the internet.

What about filmmakers whose careers who ruined due their names being internet poison such as Joel Schumacher? His Batman movies may have been terrible, but he did what Warner Bris hired him to do: make movies the sold toys and made money with family audiences.

Or does the internet not factor to any of this at all?

A good example is Alfred Hitchcock - before the internet, nobody had ever hear of him.

Christopher Nolan. Following and Memento got him the Batman Begins gig.

I am not sure I 100-percent understand the question, but I thought of Alex Cox. The consolidating power of movie culture on the Internet might have helped him in the '80s when he was at the height of his creative powers (Repo Man, Sid and Nancy, Walker), before his career began a long downward slide toward projects as dire as 2009's Repo Chick.

Alex Cox was the first person to pop in my mind. Repo Man really stood out in 84 and has the quirky weirdness that would have garnered a lot of internet interest. Most of the pre-internet knowledge of the film was mainly because it produced a cult indie punk hit from Suicidal Tendencies

W.D. Richter. Wrote the awesome Invasion of the Body Snatchers remake (78), Home for the Holidays and co-wrote Big Trouble in Little China.

Helmed one major feature (Buckaroo Banzai) that tanked and pretty much ended his directorial career. Last produced screenplay was...Stealth.

Could see both Richter and Banzai benefitting from the internet. Dude definitely had a unique style and it's a shame he really only got to make Banzai and a single low-budget indie.

Magnus understands the question. He gets me

What? He's probably the most household name in film after Spielberg or Walt Disney. He was on every possible media platform (and had huge hits) and even made his face known in the trailers. And he was an influence on Porky Pig.

With Edgar Wright I see a lot in John Carpenter. He will always have Halloween and Starman. But his great films like The Thing and Big Trouble in Little China would have benefited greatly from the marketing and online atmosphere of today. Hell even gems like They Live, Vampires, and In the Mouth of Madness.

It's hard to pick individual movies though. I don't think the Internet is really as important as say other aspects. It's great that you can find the cult films though like Buckaroo Banzai Maybe the Rocketeer, the Shadow, or The Phantom would have done better.

This.

(Here's Roger Ebert's review of The Phantom.)