'The Road' Hits the Road Again, Now Opens 11.25

In the immortal words of Sylvester the Cat, "Thhhtop bounthhin' around!" Dimension/Weinstein has moved John Hillcoat's The Road again, this time to November 25th. Sigh... The Cormac McCarthy adaptation has an unflattering history in this department. Last year it was primed for an Oscar season run, but the studio decided to push The Reader instead. The gamble paid off, Kate Winslet won the Oscar, and The Reader went on to become a big enough hit internationally. However, thinking The Road could still contend, the delay turned into nearly a year, settling into a fairly comfortable October 16th slot. Now, however, the film has been shuffled over a month back, putting it not just on Thanksgiving weekend, but on an extremely crowded Thanksgiving weekend. In addition to Nine, Ninja Assassin, Old Dogs, and The Fantastic Mr. Fox all in wide release on either Wednesday or Friday of that week, there's still the carryover from New Moon, which opens five days earlier. There's not direct competition on all sides, but certainly three of the five will split some audience with the Viggo Mortensen flick. I suppose it's good news for audiences that there's no strategic weekend left between October and the end of the year, but it's going to be a tough sell for a lot of films, especially those being described over and over again as "atmospheric." That's a kiss of death word if you're counting on a big return in wide release. Still, Bob Weinstein is confident that 1,200 - 1,500 theaters is the best bet for The Road on the most heavily trafficked shopping weekend of the year. "We've been getting great audience reaction at Venice and Telluride...We feel that this is a commercial film that's worthy of a wide release." I agree that it's worthy of a wide release, too, but this should be in theaters in a week or two, not in November or December. I just don't think it can win there.

Comments

[SEAN]

These Weinstein are fucking dumb and you know why community??

Its because by doing such buisness moves by pushing the film back, which is probably because of the lackluster critic reviews (im guessing) , only makes this issue worse...

The Weinsteins are thinking money and how to make the most of it by planning strategically...BUT BY PUSHING BACK THE DATE YOUR ONLY WIDESPREADING BAD NEWS AND ULTIMATELY DAMAGING YOUR FILM B/C NO ONE WILL SEE IT AND THEREFOR NO MONEY YOU IDIOTS (weinsteins)

I dunno maybe Im wrong but that's what I think... Bad publicity (which is what the Weinsteins are doing) is not good publicity for ticket sales....

[Get The Big Picture]

Yeah, I think pushing it back with the so-so reviews only invites the hand-wringing. They should have stuck to their guns.