Cloverfield causes studios to alter release dates
First 20th Century Fox announces that the Katherine Heigl romantic comedy 27 Dresses, which has been receiving a sizable advertising push (at least here in the Chicago area), will open on January 18th, a week later than it’s previously scheduled January 11th date.
Now New Line is moving Be Kind Rewind from January 25th to sometime in February. This throws a serious crimp in some marketing efforts - like the Soho art studio that was going to be turned into a short film production house - that were scheduled for just before the 1/25 opening date.
It’s hard to read either of these moves as anything other than a reaction to the 1/18 opening of Cloverfield.
In the first case, Fox is seemingly hoping that 27 Dresses will act as decent counter-programming for the ladies who may not be interested in checking out the monster that thinks the Statue of Liberty needs to look more like Anne Boleyn.
In the second, it’s not so much that they’re avoiding other 1/25 openers like Rambo IV, but avoiding winding up in the jet wash created by Cloverfield and flaming out, killing Goose in the process as they bail out. (Sidenote: Yeehah…Jester’s dead. Sorry. Let’s continue.)
Cloverfield, it’s expected, will march through the box-office like a monster rising from the depths of the sea. Everyone’s apparently giving it a wide berth and they’re moving movies they have a lot riding on to other slots to either maximize a position against it or avoid getting trounced by it.
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