Let’s talk about movies in 2009
I’m a planner by nature, so I’m perfectly happy to talk about next week or next month or even next year, most of the time. Planning ahead is good! Knowing what’s happening is important! Yes! But having it be front-page news when a movie not due out until 2009 changes its anticipated release date does confuse me a little. Then again, I’m not a large animation studio.
(I… think it would be uncomfortable if I was a large animation studio. And probably that I would need to cut back on snacks if that were the case.)
Regardless, this is big news, it seems:
DreamWorks Animation SKG, Inc. , together with Paramount Pictures Corporation, a unit of Viacom Inc. , announced today that Monsters vs. Aliens, DreamWorks Animation’s first-ever film produced in stereoscopic 3-D technology, will be released into theatres on March 27, 2009. The film had been previously slated for its domestic release on May 15, 2009.
The release date has been adjusted by less than two months, and I found this story headlining in three different news locations. (After three, I stopped looking. Third time’s the charm, and all that.)
“I believe that next generation 3-D will make our CG films even more special and unique,” said Jeffrey Katzenberg, Chief Executive Officer of DreamWorks Animation. “We are thrilled to have Monster vs. Aliens as the first opportunity for audiences to enjoy this exciting new movie experience. Moving to a March release date, which has proven to be a great slot for family films, allows us to roll out our first 3-D project on the maximum amount of screens as the year’s first big event film to hit the market in this new format.”
This is the sort of “money quote” that I hate. I mean—and no disrespect to Mr. Katzenberg is meant, here—what’s he going to say? “I believe that this movie will be formulaic and boring!” Of course he believes this will be even more special and unique. Why would they do it, otherwise? And suggesting that March is more family-friendly than May…? Because… why, exactly?
It turns out that the real reasoning behind the shift is pretty transparent:
DreamWorks Animation is moving the 2009 release date for its 3-D feature “Monsters vs. Aliens” to March 27 from May 15, in order to avoid a showdown with James Cameron’s “Avatar,” studio CEO Jeffrey Katzenberg said Wednesday.
The big-budget, effects-heavy opus “Avatar,” Cameron’s first feature since “Titanic,” is due to arrive on May 22 via 20th Century Fox.
Had “Monsters” stuck to its proposed May release, “I saw more and more problems splitting the market for 3-D right at the time when it will be becoming the most exciting thing in movie-going,” Katzenberg said at the Goldman Sachs media conference in New York.
Will we have an announcement from 20th Century Fox next week that Avatar has moved up its release date? Maybe for the next year and a half we can have dueling movie release dates! It’s like playing chicken, except with CGI films!
No? Oh, okay. (Besides, I’m still waiting to find out if the upcoming Avatar: The Last Airbender film has to change its name because of the Cameron film. Anyone?)