With the wide full release of 3:10 To Yuma (which mark my words… will be getting a lot of talk come Oscar time) heading into theaters this Friday, it’s coming to light that there was a lot of disagreement between Lionsgate and Russell Crowe concerning the marketing and release date for the film.
Apparently “Crowe did not want to muddy the waters by opening 3:10 to Yuma too close to American Gangster’s release on Nov. 2.” Crowe’s camp is said to have wanted the film to be moved to 2008, at which time he would be more cooperative in promoting the film if Lionsgate agreed, but they obviously didn’t.
3:10 to Yuma was originally set to be released in October, but being that close to Universal’s American Gangster didn’t appeal to the smaller distributer as they knew competing Crowe ads would not work too well and that Uni would far outspend the smaller Lion.
Lionsgate’s primary concern however didn’t appear to be American Gangster as Masters points out it was a focus on coming out before another Western, The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford starring Brad Pitt, which releases on September 21 and it already receiving good word of mouth.
The marketing for the film has been weak for certain. A film like this (just un-bloodly-believably good) with 2 of the biggest stars in Hollywood right now should be on everyone’s lips… but it not uncommon to talk to people who still haven’t even heard about it yet. And let’s face it… this isn’t exactly the type of movie Lionsgate is used to doing… so some fumbling should be expected.
I really hope for good thing for this film. Such high quality stuff. It deserves to be watched… it deserves to be recognized… it deserves to be a hit. Make sure you get out and see it. (source: RopeOfSilicon)
