Lionsgate Sets 'Expendables,' 'Kick-Ass' Release Dates

It's humorous to me how much stock studios seem to put into specific films on specific weekends. It's a pet peeve of mine, actually, that a Marvel hero always opens summer now and Christopher Nolan will have that third weekend in July until it stops working, as if another Batman movie or Iron Man 2 wouldn't be profitable nearly any other time of the year. And so it was with an ensemble action movie on August 21st. Inglourious Basterds has now turned a profit, minus those extra advertising costs, and it opened very well. So what does Lionsgate do with its upcoming ensemble action movie, The Expendables? Move it from April to August 20, 2010. Because clearly, the only time people will be in the mood for it is on that very weekend. That's not the only move over at Lionsgate, though. The studio picked up Kick-Ass, which looks more fun than just about anything else on the 2010 schedule at this point, and now that will open on April 16th. That's a very busy weekend, though, with Piranha 3-D and MacGruber standing out as direct competition for Kick-Ass, although you could argue that a lot of the audience for Piranha will be younger and the MacGruber might aim a little older. Still, that's three male-oriented movies on the same weekend, and if you throw in the Chris Rock-Tracy Morgan Death at a Funeral, suddenly, that's four wide releases, all of which cancel another movie out to some degree. Strange strategy. As for Expendables, it might actually be a show of faith by the studio to move it into late summer rather than the Gateway to Being Annhiliated By Iron Man 2 spot it previously occupied. Even if it were to open well - say, $35 million or so - that'd be about all she wrote. It wouldn't threaten the Marvel movie one bit. Call it the curse of Hellboy II.

Comments

[D]

The thing I have always wondered is why other studios don't challenge Marvel and WB for "their" release dates (the first Friday in May for Marvel and the second Friday after the Fourth of July for WB). Those two dates (especially the first one) have tactical advantages since the first ensures that a film face no direct competition for at least week while the second comes late enough that most of the major blockbusters have already been in release for at least two weeks with only one or two big movies left before classes start again. Yet for some reason other studios just let Marvel and WB scoop up these dates years in advance.

[Get The Big Picture]

I've been forecasting a longer summer season for about five years, one that essentially runs from the Oscars through the end of September. I wouldn't be at all surprised to see one of these studios wise up and let the summer schedule get cemented and movie a big tentpole from late June to April 24th with about a month to go, just to put Marvel at a slight disadvantage.

If you handled, I don't know, Predators or The A-Team, wouldn't you rather put it before the titans of May and July instead of between them?

[D]

The problem, I think, with that strategy is that Marvel is now connected with four separate studios (Fox, Sony, Paramount and Disney). And while The A-Team would probably do a lot better opening before Iron Man and Inception, I doubt Fox wants to risk pissing off the company that has creative control of the studios most profitable franchise (ditto for Sony and Paramount).

[D]

Sorry for the double post, but on the matter of Marvel being connected to so many studios, I'm guessing that Fox expects if they don't try and open a movie just before Spider Man, Sony won't try and slip in a film before Magneto.

[Get The Big Picture]

True, but whether or not it's Marvel in that slot or whatever, somebody's bound to do it. March has been good lately, so I think even if it's completely different fare, some studio will jump the summer in the next couple of years.