A films release date can often make or break a film nowadays many films are dated years in advance positioned to give them the best chance for success as similar films in the past have had success opening on the same date.
But whereas a date could be great for US market it wouldn’t be for international why often were long delays between release dates one of the most famous was Good Morning, Vietnam which opened 25th December 1987 in the US but wasn’t released in the UK until 30th September 1988 in the UK.
Where many more films that took several months to be released in the UK after opening in the US even films like Jurassic Park and Star Wars: The Phantom Menace UK releases were delayed six and eight weeks after their US opening to give them a prime July start of summer holidays release date. (Jurassic Park went on to take £46.71m;14.55m admissions £110.73m today, Star Wars: The Phantom Menace £50.73m; 12.04m admissions £91.69m today). Jurassic Park: The Lost World was also delayed but Jurassic Park 3 and Jurassic World opened day and date as did Attack of the Clones, Revenge of the Sith, The Force Awakens, Rogue One as will The Last Jedi, Han Solo and the infinite Star Wars films that will open every year until the end of the world.
But nowadays almost every film opens day and date with the US meaning that are many children’s films playing out of school holidays why Disney would originally holdback their summer animated film to autumn half-term and their Thanksgiving animation to February half-term. In recent years opened their US June animation film at the start of the summer holidays but then Thanksgiving film a few weeks after in the build-up to Christmas.
Due to Paddington 2 in November are delaying Coco to January, but then due to their Lion King remake opening July 19th they will be opening Toy Story 4 same day as US in the UK which will be only a week before The Secret of Pets 2 which brings me to the reason for this article the question why does studios keep opening similar films of similar genre close to each other as all it does is cannibalize their box office.
Studios have seemingly gotten worse dating their films in recent years saying this I would watch on in amazement from the projection box at 20th Century Fox when global studio executives were discussing upcoming slates and the dates they had chosen for their films wondering why they had decided to open x on a certain date as rival film y opened the week before. A few months later it was then no surprise x film disappointed why I’m sure there was a long inquest in why it underperformed but the reasoning started by whoever decided it was a good release date but that was 20 years ago and it has gotten far worse since. Studios now have so much data available to them at their fingertips from ComScore, Movio, NRG, MarketCast and many more so why are studios making the same mistakes time and again.
Only need to look to last summer Star Trek: Beyond, Jason Bourne and Suicide Squad to know that Spider-Man: Homecoming, War for the Planet of the Apes and Dunkirk would end with two films underperforming compared with previous installments and the final film to be the most successful. Last year Suicide Squad despite the negativity surrounding it still took more than Star Trek: Beyond and Jason Bourne took at the box office combined, while Dunkirk won’t do that for Spider-Man: Homecoming and War for the Planet of the Apes its box office performance will be a lot more than many expected.
While Spider-Man: Homecoming despite its opening being described as an “heroic comeback” by Variety its final box office will be less than most expected as will be War for the Planet of the Apes. These three films received some of the best reviews of the summer with the highest Rotten Tomatoes scores which show that had they been further apart all three could have been far more successful.
Next summer faces similar box office cannibalization in the UK due to the World Cup with Star Wars: Han Solo, Deadpool 2 and Jurassic World: TFallen Kingdom opening a week after each other all three targeting similar audiences all three previous films were very successful opening away from similar films but will cannibalize each other.
Four years ago, in the build up to its release Edge of Tomorrow was generating far less media coverage than the film’s opening close to it Godzilla, X-Men: Days of Future Past, Maleficent and The Fault in our Stars. Despite the Tom Cruise film getting great reviews, it opened third to The Fault in our Stars and Maleficent opening with $28.76m almost half what Mission: Impossible Rogue Nation opened with a year later.
Edge of Tomorrow received very positive reviews and for many was the best film of the summer holding strongly in the weeks after release but the damage was done with its poor release date. Its release date was even worse in the UK as choose to open it a week early to avoid the World Cup which meant it opened same weekend as Maleficent and the weekend after X-Men: Days of Future Past which gave Tom Cruise his worse opening in the UK since Rock of Ages. A Tom Cruise film used to be a tentpole title for a studio given the weekend to itself only Mission: Impossible Rogue Nation since has he the weekend to himself for Jack Reacher: Never Go Back opened second to Boo! A Madea Halloween and The Mummy opened second to Wonder Woman’s strong second weekend.
A Tom Cruise film used to be a tentpole title for a studio given the weekend to itself only Mission: Impossible Rogue Nation since has he the weekend to himself for Jack Reacher: Never Go Back opened second to Boo! A Madea Halloween and The Mummy opened second to Wonder Woman’s strong second weekend.
Universal Pictures UK is strangely releasing Tm Cruise’s latest film a month earlier it might make sense if had a UK plot but the title American Made is as American as the plot which is similar to 2014 film Kill the Messenger which Universal also gave a strange release too. American Made sees Tom Cruise re-team up with Doug Liman who directed Edge of Tomorrow so the hope is that the reason Universal are opening it early is to avoid Kingsman The Golden Circle.
This week Universal Pictures delayed Pacific Rim 2 a month to avoid being sandwiched between Black Panther and Ready Player One after both films generated strong buzz after their trailers were released but then Paramount Pictures crazily saw that as an opportunity to date Annihilation in its place which will likely see it annihilated at the box office.
After a very crowded May – July August is looking very bleak at the box office after Suicide Squad opened with $133.6m last August why didn’t studio bigger films in August with Valerian and the City of a Thousand Planets one of many that would of surely of benefited not sandwiched between megamovies.
But it’s not just megamovies that get cannibalized between September-December there will be many films targeting older audience sand awards opening close together but the craziest dating decision is Paramount Pictures bringing forward Darren Aronofsky’s Mother! a month forward to September 15th opening a week after IT after the Stephen King adaptation first trailer was viewed over 197m times in its first 24 hours and the second has been scaring audiences over the last week its surprising Paramount would open another horror the week after IT which is likely to have the biggest September opening ever beating Hotel Transylvania 2 $48.64m.
