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Sunday
09Aug2009

The Weinsteins Should Move 'Halloween' to Halloween

DateSunday, August 9, 2009 at 12:43PM
We are potentially three weeks away from Halloween II. I say potentially because even though the film is still solidly locked in for an August 28th release, there's still time for The Weinstein Company/Dimension to come to its senses and move the Rob Zombie sequel to where it rightfully belongs: Halloween.

I have thought late August was a stupid time for this series since before the last movie was released. Even though Halloween did about $60 million in business two years ago, the fact is that three of the top ten horror remakes were released in October, and if you add the Saw movies to the mix, an overwhelming majority of the biggest titles in the genre have opened closer to Halloween than Labor Day. So it would naturally make sense for a movie named Halloween to take advantage of that fact, right?

There are other reasons, though, besides the name. I'm not exactly sure how the marketing campaigns are funded but Weinstein is not a company known for supporting its products on TV and with billboards, particularly once the movies hit theaters. That changes during awards season, of course, but Bob and Harvey, especially once they left Miramax, have not devoted huge chunks of change to ad campaigns throughout the year. And the overall box office is iffy at best. Only four movies released under the Weinstein/Dimension banners have ever made $100 million domestically, all of them franchise properties, none of them in the past five years.

With Halloween II currently opening only seven days after Inglourious Basterds, wouldn't it behoove the company to separate its most anticipated film of the year from a misplaced horror sequel? Won't they both need some marketing this month, and wouldn't it be easier to promote both if you had one in the third quarter of the year and one in the fourth? Maybe it wouldn't be a big deal for a company like Paramount - and maybe Universal's commitment to Basterds will make this promotional schedule easier - but it has to be a consideration. If the studio doesn't move Halloween, I'll be interested to see how long after its opening weekend the commercials disappear.

Two other factors are competition in both weekends. On August 28th, there's The Final Destination. Can two R-rated horror movies co-exist on the same weekend? Nobody appears to be blinking, and while Halloween would likely have the advantage, it's still going to surrender some audience, especially to the younger end of the 17-plus crowd.

But if The Weinstein Company isn't afraid of direct competition, why in the hell is it afraid of indirect competition at the end of October? Halloween falls on a Saturday this year. Saw VI opens on October 23rd. The only wide release currently on the calendar for October 30th is Youth in Revolt, a Michael Cera comedy released by - you guessed it - The Weinstein Company and its baby brother, Dimension.

I have a hunch that the Cera movie would play just as well no matter where you put it, but studios often outthink themselves and believe audiences are so stupid that they'll only respond to certain movies and certain stars on certain weekends, like it's dictated by the tides or something. So, Marvel kicks off summer, Indiana Jones always opens around Memorial Day, Labor Day is a cursed weekend, Halloween made somebody money when it opened in August 2007, Martin Scorsese movies do better in the first weekend of October, and Michael Cera starred in Nick and Norah, which opened in October 2008. Naturally, audiences could never be expected to buy a ticket to see a small Michael Cera comedy around Thanksgiving or even in late August. The timing's off. Does that logic make any sense to you whatsoever?

Perhaps it's too late to swap Halloween II and Youth in Revolt. However, it's a move that would let The Weinstein Company counterprogram a horror movie on August 28th, and considering the lower expectations for the Cera comedy, possibly allow for greater promotion (and less direct in-house competition seven days later) for Inglourious Basterds, a film the company desperately needs to be successful.

More importantly for this discussion, it would allow the studio a wide berth to market Halloween at the most appropriate possible time, give the film a chance to be hooked into local promotions nationwide with haunted houses or something (which it can't do on August 28th), and rather than stealing business from a homegrown product later this month, steal it from the competing Saw franchise, turning that tired, depleted series into an appetizer for a horror fan's main course this October.

Does this plan just not make sense to the Weinsteins or does it make so much sense that it couldn't possibly work?

AuthorColin Boyd | | in , , , | Print ArticlePrint Article | | Comment1 Comment |

Reader Comments (1)

I just don't get The Weinstein Company. Is the company really that dense? I've been shaking my head for years now, every time they let some movie fall through the cracks instead of really finding its audience. I still felt that "Zack and Miri" could've done twice as much business, if the Weinstein had actually promoted it, not censor the title, show a couple of ads like 2 days before opening and released it.

Even "The Final Destination" is getting better buzz than "Halloween II"- it's the lesser of two evils (well, of two tired, worn out franchises at least) this month. I'm dumbfounded as to how the company still stands today. I completely agree that they need to rearrange some movies as to maximize profit.

Also, "Inglourious Basterds" won't be successful. I'm not really hearing anything good about it, and most people have pegged it as a 2 hour talk fest. Look how that worked out for "Watchmen" and "Funny People".

Sunday, August 9, 2009 | Unregistered CommenterVince

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