Three More Films on the Move: 'Furious,' 'Nottingham,' 'Lovely Bones'

It seems like only a few hours ago that we told you The Wolf Man was officially moved by Universal from April to November 2009. A lot of people think, "Oh, well it must suck," and in a lot of cases, that's true. Studios will move bad movies out of prime positions to put something else in their place or move them against powerhouses and not bother to market them for the same reason.I think 2009 might be different, and if these moves work out, we might see a lot more of this. It began, for all practical purposes, with Wanted. That was supposed to be a spring 2008 movie, and Universal put it head-to-head against Wall-E instead, and manufactured a big summer hit.Then we saw it happen with Harry Potter. Warner Bros. took the very bold step of moving one of the most profitable movie franchises ever from a cushy November release date (which helped Twilight inestimably) and putting it in July. It's not unprecedented for Potter to play in the summer, but to scrap plans for a big fall release and switch gears to summer had never really been done with a movie of that size. Next on the carousel came The Soloist, a potential Oscar nominee in a few categories, take a pass at 2008 and hope for a better April release. The Road, another one with Oscar capabilities, has been delayed until who knows when. Then The Wolf Man had its release date changed yesterday, and today there are three more movies being shuffled around: Fast and Furious, Nottingham, and The Lovely Bones. Fast and Furious - Universal has moved this from the summer into the slot that The Wolf Man had occupied. This is very smart. Very smart. Why? This may or may not have been a summer blockbuster, but putting it directly against Dragonball forces the young audiences to choose. And they'll choose this two-to-one. Nottingham - The ambitious retelling of the Robin Hood story with Russell Crowe has already been delayed once, because the script and the trees were both the wrong colors. Now we won't see this until sometime in 2010. Even though it's a Ridley Scott joint, this is the one movie of the bunch that really has me worried. It could all come together beautifully, because at least the delays hit before the movie went into production, but they just can't seem to get it started. The Lovely Bones - I just got word from Paramount that the new Peter Jackson movie, set to debut the week after Watchmen in March (not a great time to be introduced to the world), has been pushed back nine months into December. That could mean - could mean - that Paramount wants to focus its awards attention on this adaptation. Or maybe the studio is hedging its bets, because it has the new Scorsese movie out in October. But whatever it is, I don't look at movies being moved into December as a bad thing.I'm sure we haven't seen the last of it, but these are some pretty big hitters. I'm curious to see what's next.

Comments

[Orinn]

yeah I would see Fast Furious over Dragon Ball.

[Lengthy Johnson]

I've said it before and I say it again. The rescheduling of movies is getting out of hand.

We should all reproach the studios for trying to be too clever with dates by waiting for the DVD releases.

If the film is good enough, people will see it anytime.

[Get The Big Picture]

But what we're seeing now is that the studios just aren't afraid to move big movies to more advantageous weekends, or at least, that's what they think. I had little faith in Fast and Furious being a player in the summer, but now it's up against creampuffs for a month, so it will make a lot more money. Potter will likely do better business, as well.

What I'm curious about is moving films that don't seem to have huge commercial potential. I think those are the ones your statement applies to, Lengthy.

[Lengthy Johnson]

Nope.

I'm talking about the increasingly bad habit of pushing completed films six months or more into the future just to hit an imagined optimal release date.

The industry had some flukes when pushing films such as Quantum of Solace forward and making more money than expected. The is no natural law that says it will work everytime though.

At the moment there is an unusually low number of big releases, which may very well account for the increased erning for some top titles.

For me, the optimal release date is when the film is ready. Anything else is just manipulation.

It's getting increasingly difficult to get me into a theatre to watch movies. With BluRay, DLP and surround sound system I am getting better picture and sound at home.

Pushing titles into the future makes me annoyed and even less inclined to go to the cinema.