Film-Tech Forum ARCHIVE: firday openings... a thing of the past?

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Posted by Brian Hogan (Member # 940) on 07-16-2001, 03:03 PM:

so with all these features opening on wednesday, rather than friday... are distributors just gonna switch over to wednesday openings for everything? hell... why not switch to a tuesday opening, that way new film, music and video would all come out on the same day. sakes.

-hogan

Posted by Charles Everett (Member # 889) on 07-16-2001, 06:09 PM:

Call it a fluke of studio scheduling and the way the calendar runs this year.

Four straight weeks of Wednesday/Friday openers -- and one of those Wednesdays just happened to be a US holiday.

Not only that, there are 2 weeks of Wednesday/Friday openers in August per the most recent update on www.filmreleases.com .

Posted by Mike Blakesley (Member # 26) on 07-16-2001, 07:01 PM:

They just want to get a "record" opening "weekend" by tacking the two extra days on the front of the weekend.

Posted by Steve Scott (Member # 630) on 07-16-2001, 10:34 PM:

It really is the calendar.
The studios want people to remember when the films are being released, so they try to pick days that people will remember. July 4th, for example, was a Wednesday & most people in America know when that day is getting close. So then, they remember when the movie that they saw in the trailers is coming out.

Posted by John Scott (Member # 520) on 07-16-2001, 10:53 PM:

Plus don't forget that every summer has a number of Wednesday releases. Its usually a way to distance yourself from the competition opening the week with you.

Posted by Bob Maar (Member # 763) on 07-17-2001, 07:36 AM:

It the sixties most films opened on Wednesdays and Friday openings were much less frequent. The film distributor's would usually open on a Friday if they were expecting a bad review. The reviews would appear in the Saturday papers. Saturday the circulation was less than half of the weekdays. Wednesday opening were reviewed on Thursdays and if you have decent reviews they would be quoted in Fridays large ads.

Posted by Jerry Chase (Member # 660) on 07-17-2001, 08:48 AM:

Wednesday openings lasted into the mid-1970s.

Wednesday openings were usually a bear for managers, since they often weren't finalized until Monday, which meant a Wednesday ad had to be rushed to the newspaper and abuse heaped upon the theatre manager for keeping the entertainment page from being sent to bed early. Those were the days when some papers actually printed news and didn't have complete sections of fluff ready and even printed days in advance of the publication day.

IIRC, film for both Wednesday and Friday openings was delivered Tuesday nights, sometimes Monday. In my case, Norm, who ran a private film delivery service out of Boston, would stamp the snow off his boots and sit up in the booth with me and we'd smoke our pipes and chat while he thawed out and his fingers uncurled from the steering wheel death-grip caused by ice-slick narrow Vermont roads and white-out snowstorms.

Posted by Charles Everett (Member # 889) on 07-17-2001, 11:10 AM:

Mike B: On Wednesday openers, weekend gross is calculated just like Friday openers.

John S: Outside summer, Thanksgiving and Xmas, Wednesday openers are often movies with black and/or Latino appeal (Next Friday, Romeo Must Die). In New York you also have the occasional arthouse movie opening on a non-holiday Wednesday (Liberty Heights, Best in Show, Sexy Beast).

Posted by John Pytlak (Member # 331) on 07-17-2001, 02:08 PM:

In my days at the Grandview Drive-In (1967-1970), we changed programs on Wednesday.

With almost "instant" reporting of film grosses by the media today, you want the first numbers to come from a Friday or Saturday night, rather than a slow mid-week day. But as noted, opening on a Wednesday or holiday can be used to draw attention to "being different", and can build momentum for the busy weekend with a good picture.

------------------
John P. Pytlak, Senior Technical Specialist
Worldwide Technical Services, Entertainment Imaging
Eastman Kodak Company
Research Labs, Building 69, Room 7419
Rochester, New York, 14650-1922 USA
Tel: 716-477-5325 Cell: 716-781-4036 Fax: 716-722-7243
E-Mail: john.pytlak@kodak.com
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Posted by Jesse Skeen (Member # 586) on 07-18-2001, 05:25 AM:

I didn't notice til someone else pointed out but a lot of the "Gangsta" or "'Hood" type movies come out on Wednesdays- most recently "Baby Boy". I've heard this is so you can open it on a night when the other movies will be slower than on a weekend, so if the 'Hood' film gets gang-bangers coming in they'll be easier to deal with. Thinking back this seems right, since "New Jack City", "187" and "Turn it Up" (a bad "Rapsploitation" flick which NOBODY came to see!) came out on Wednesdays.
Seems funny- Wednesdays are either for big 'Event' pictures or "Gangsta flicks".

Posted by Matthew Bailey (Member # 601) on 07-18-2001, 07:13 AM:

My god,Brian Hogan! What happened to the film that I saw in your
picture!? It looks like you had a very serious accident with it!

Posted by John Pytlak (Member # 331) on 07-18-2001, 07:19 AM:

To Brian Hogan:

I just noticed your photo, with a pile of film on the floor and your body hunched over it in frustration. Hopefully, this is a rare event at your theatre, and that things usually run much smoother.

Posted by Charles Everett (Member # 889) on 07-18-2001, 02:33 PM:

Jesse: We happen to be in summer season right now -- EDI defines summer season as Friday of Memorial Day weekend through Labor Day proper. This year summer season is 5/25 to 9/3. Baby Boy opened 6/27. It just happened to start the 1st of these 4 straight weeks of Wednesday/Friday openers.

Posted by Brian Hogan (Member # 940) on 07-20-2001, 02:35 AM:

yeah... about that pic

... i was workin at this 8 plex in town and this print was theaded through the fail-safe wrong and half the print ended up on the floor cause the platter wasnt picking it up. i guess i stopped by at the wrong time cause somehow i got suckered in to helping fix the problem. good thing there was a camera

Posted by Charles Everett (Member # 889) on 11-15-2001, 06:40 PM:

Release date for Star Wars Episode 2: 5/16/2002 -- a Thursday.

Outside US/Canada movies generally open on Thursday and Lucasfilm wants a uniform release date around the world. That's "globalization" for you!

Posted by Aaron Sisemore (Member # 145) on 11-15-2001, 07:36 PM:

IME lists Episode II as opening 5/17. (a Friday)

-Aaron

Posted by Andy Muirhead (Member # 712) on 11-15-2001, 07:41 PM:

We got the release from Fox yesterday.

FYI in the UK, we 'open' on Friday's, only exception is previews, which are hard to define - if say we 'open' a print on Friday, but have previews on Thurs, i would say we 'open' on Thurs. but it get's harder - Harry Potter 'opens' on the 16th, but we ran previews 10th and 11th! so we 'opened' then 'closed'! do you see what i mean? previews are there to boost the 'opening' weekend as they are added to the take on the 'opening' weekend. So cunning distributors can have a record opening weekend (3-day gross) which is actually a five day gross.

Posted by Charles Everett (Member # 889) on 11-15-2001, 07:46 PM:

Aaron, Andy: The Thursday date is per today's Hollywood Reporter online edition.

Posted by Charles Everett (Member # 889) on 07-10-2002, 03:56 PM:

Warner Bros. must have been eating that Lucasfilm mystery meat.

Release date for The Matrix Reloaded: May 15, 2003 -- a Thursday.

Variety incorrectly reported that this is the first WB title to open on a Thursday. Who can forget The Postman?

Posted by James R. Hammonds, Jr (Member # 673) on 07-10-2002, 08:39 PM:

I can.
I never saw it.

Posted by Steve Kraus (Member # 476) on 07-10-2002, 10:27 PM:

It was not nearly so bad as its reputation. Unlike some films it was watchable. And it had a Century projector in it.