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Saturday
16Aug2008

'Twilight' Replaces 'Potter' in Fall's Starting Line-Up

DateSaturday, August 16, 2008 at 3:32AM
I don't disagree that moving Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince to summer 2009 is taking advantage of a situation. After all, July did look a little light next year. So it shouldn't be terribly surprising to learn that another film is taking advantage of Potter's departure from the fall schedule.

Representing another do-si-do in the recent Hollywood release date square dance, Variety reports the teen vampire drama Twilight has packed its bags and moved from the rather tight December 12th date into the suddenly more spacious November 21st slot. Director Catherine Hardwicke has to be over the moon about this. The move is strong on two fronts:

1) It creates a kind of implicit connection between Potter and Twilight in the mind the young adult/tweener crowd that may not know what Twilight is all about, a kind of "don't worry, you can still watch this" security blanket. Both films are based on popular book series, and it could, theoretically and ideally, serve as a passing of the baton from one series to the next.

2) It moves Twilight out of the line of fire of the much more mainstream Day the Earth Stood Still remake on December 12th. Now it faces off against the Disney cartoon Bolt, which would share some of its audience in the grand scheme of things, but even if you're 13 and you want to see Bolt, you won't do it on November 21st now. Not if you want any of your friends to think you're cool.

In all, I think this makes Twilight a much bigger deal in the marketplace while really requiring zero effort. All Summit Entertainment has to do is step up its marketing post-Halloween and it will very likely have a much bigger hit on its hands. Summit plans to open the film in over 3,000 theaters in November, which could make the movie a threat to rake in $30 million or more on opening weekend, and that's just if it does Step Brothers business. It wouldn't be in that position had it stayed on December 12th. That kind of opening effects its ability to perform over the long haul and could even set the bar (and the budget) higher for sequels.

Now, the odds are it won't even win that weekend in the ol' box office derby - it's still facing a Disney cartoon - but by serving as a kind of Potter replacement, it will have more top of mind awareness and relevance to both its potential audience and moviegoers outside its target demographic.

AuthorColin Boyd | | in , , , | Reference1 Reference Print ArticlePrint Article | | CommentPost a Comment |

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    Response: join my forum
    by anonymous at www.millsberryforum.org on Sunday, August 17, 2008

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