Discuss: Wednesday is the New Friday
Filed under: Action, Comedy, Drama, Thrillers, Sony, Warner Brothers, Distribution, 20th Century Fox, Dreamworks, Remakes and Sequels
Maybe I missed something, but since when did releasing films on a Wednesday become a commonplace strategy? I know, for years and years, several titles have opened mid-week, albeit typically on a handful of NY/LA screens or to capitalize on a holiday weekend.
But due to some recent moves, every Wednesday in August now has at least one wide release opening on it instead of Friday. On the 6th, we have Pineapple Express and The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants 2; the 13th brings us Tropic Thunder; the 20th, The Rocker; and then Traitor on the 27th.
There are at least three other wide releases on the last three Fridays of the month, but I see no distinct point at which a two-day head start would make any great deal of difference (although I presume that Pineapple still wanted to have seven days on Tropic instead of five when it comes to their similar target demographic).
Was there a holiday I overlooked somewhere? Is it now cooler for kids to go to the movies on a school night once classes are back in session? Do you guys have any theories, or will you still wait for the weekend to catch any of these regardless?
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Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
7-23-2008 @ 12:19PM
Ronan said...
Here in France, almost all movies are released on a Wednesday.
When a movie is released on the same week world-wide, we get it two days before US.
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7-23-2008 @ 12:36PM
modenadude said...
I've always thought the whole not-Friday release without a holiday was always related to box office numbers, perhaps they don't want to compete in the summer numbers because they know their films won't do as well as the blockbusters? Either way, weekends and movies just go hand-in-hand for me, so I usually wait 'til then to watch one, even if it came out a day or two ago.
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7-23-2008 @ 12:43PM
Chas said...
All films used to open on Wednesday all the time. It was standard proceedure from Hollywoods earlies days. It was not until sometime in the early 90s (maybe late 80s) that it became common to open on Fridays. Don't know why the powers that be made the switch.
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7-23-2008 @ 1:35PM
Kevin said...
It may have been more commonplace, but releasing movies on wednesday normally shouts "BIG BUDGET BLOCKBUSTER" movie to me, which is why the wed. releases in August seem so odd. None of them are huge action extravaganzas, so I'm pretty confused as to why they feel the need to come out mid-week (especially The Rocker...is that movie really supposed to make a ton of money?)
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7-23-2008 @ 3:05PM
Jason Seaver said...
Not relevant here, but when I was working at a movie theater in the mid-nineties, "urban" films with African-American casts would get Wednesday releases, the logic apparently being that it spread out the gang presence.
As to this current crop, heck if I know. Maybe people take more vacation time in August and there's some marketing benefit to having new releases earlier in the week with more people coming in mid-week. Not being able to use discount tickets, or something.
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7-23-2008 @ 3:10PM
Matthew said...
I actually think quite the opposite Kevin. Wednesday releases to me usually scream "There are other films you really wanna see in the marketplace, so we'll release at an off time to grab your attention however we can!"
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