Frank Miller Feels the Christmas 'Spirit'

After its incredibly successful sneak peek at New York Comicon last month, it's not too surprising that Frank Miller's The Spirit is moving to a deluxe apartment in the sky, at least in movie terms.

Once relegated to January 16th, 2009, Lionsgate has moved The Spirit to a Christmas Day release, according to Cinematical, who point out - and rightly so - that adult counterprogramming on Christmas doesn't always fare too well.

I think the move is a shrewd one, however. For one thing, it's got a good enough cast and looks so unlike most films that The Spirit is sure to stand out from the Christmas pack. For another, hell, my dad loved Sin City and loved 300 even more...and he only goes to see a handful of movies every year. The point is: There's an extremely wide audience for this, unlike Alien vs. Predator: Requiem.

A third reason why this move might be incredibly successful for Lionsgate is that instead of opening against stiffs in January, it can generate word of mouth through the holidays and get a strong carryover audience in the first couple of weeks in the year, when audiences are dying for good movies instead of the shit the studios dish out in early January. It sure helped I Am Legend.

I think the movie looks great, the studio has done a great job with the early marketing, and this three-week adjustment might turn out to be huge for The Spirit.