Comic-Con is coming to San Diego once more on July 21-24 but several big movie studios aren’t says the New York Times:

Warner’s main studio operation is bringing nothing. Ditto Disney and DreamWorks. The Weinstein Company, a perennial presence, will also sit this one out. Even Marvel Entertainment, whose panel for “The Avengers” was a highlight of Comic-Con 2010, is on the fence about whether it will mount a major presentation.

Comic-Con, as a growing number of movie marketers are realizing, has turned into a treacherous place. Studios come seeking buzz, but the Comic-Con effect can be more negative than positive.

Whoa, baby! Surely you don’t mean that fans might do something more than just mindlessly cheer the promos? That would be a dangerous trend for sure. How long ago did that start? In the middle of the trailer for Fritz Lang’s Metropolis?

David Glanzer, Comic-Con’s director or marketing, takes the view that these studios’ absence amounts to nothing more than a blip on the radar: “Not every studio comes every year.” And well might he do so, for other big studios will be on hand. Universal will be coming to promote Cowboys & Aliens, Paramount will roll the new Tintin movie, Twentieth plans to hype Rise of the Planet of the Apes and Sony wants to raise big expectations for The Amazing Spiderman, still a year away from theaters.

[Via SMOFS.]