so. you’re saying you don’t think it’s a publicity stunt? i see.

alan

You seem to think getting 4000 movie theaters to change the arrangements they have with other movies to accomodate a sudden change of release date for Superman is an easy thing.

You assume that having to print new film reels with the trailers that play in front of films with the proper release dates and ship those new trailers to 4000 theaters is cheap. It is NOT cheap.

You also seem to assume that getting a film RMT house to move their production schedules around, which also means screwing other customers who are awaiting prints for certain specific dates is easy.

You also assume that printing 10,000 new full sized color bleed posters with updated release dates on them, and get them shipped to 4000 theaters is a cheap undertaking.

You also seem to assume that something as small as a change of date is going to generate any sort of worth while “publicity”. This news isn’t making the front page of any relevant newspaper or real news sites. Putting together (for almost free) another trailer and releasing it would generate 10x the publicity with almost zero cost.

It’s obvious that the studio and Disney have been playing chicken to see who would blink first and move off their release date.

No Alan… this was NOT a “publicity” stunt. This was not a pre-planed move. The studio fully intended to release on July 1st.

If it was a publicity stunt, their publicity department should all be fired. It costs too much… will piss off too many theaters, be a massive headache for everyone involved for what? A few blogs (like mine) making a small mention of it? That would be extremly stupid of them.

I can see why at the very first you might have that idea pop into your head… but seriously dude… when you think about it for a minute… it just isn’t realistic in the least.

Cheers!

~John

so you have to have the film prepped a couple days earlier. so you need new contracts with exhibitors. so what? with all the money that’s at stake and all the free publicity they get… i think it’s a stunt to get chatter like this for free.

unless pirates release date was not known before. usually release dates are set 6-12 months in advance. the superman people probably know the pirates release date and put together this little diversion months ago. it would be easy – only a few top dogs would have to know about it.

besides, superman needs all the help he can get. pirates is going to clean up (and everyone has planned for this for a long time). this will probably come out in a book, say, twenty years from now.

z

It’s more than just some “more posters”. And yes… it is that expensive.

Theaters now have to rearrange contracts for exhibiting films because they need their screens available 2 days ealier than they had planed for.

The physical reels have to have their production dates slightly moved…

Is it impossible or REALLY REALLY hard to move the dates? No. But there is a reason it doesn’t happen all the time… especially this close to the release date.

My only point here… is that no… this was not just a “publicity” move. Buying more commercial time would have been cheaper and less of a pain in the ass for everyone involved.

I disagree. It’s a total pain in the ass for the studios to switch release dates… and it costs a LOT of money to do it too. Not to mention theater scheduling… print shipping dates… replacing all the pre-printed material with the original dates… yadda yadda yadda.

I really think this was a strategic move to put more distance between POTC 2 and itself. It’s a smart move too.

Cheers!

~John