I thought maybe the suggestion was that the distributors feared a wide release for a Vampire Movie with Tom Hiddleston would draw too many screaming female fans, thus causing all the Serious Critics to dismiss the movie and Hiddleston for the next twenty years (see also: DiCaprio still hasn't got an Oscar, and the people years ago I heard making snide comments about how Toby Maguire had sunk his career by appearing in Seabiscuit.)