Death of the Thursday midnight show?

Cracker Funk

Cracker Funk

This year, all of the major releases have been showing on Thursday, at 10PM, some of them even 9PM. And yet, the studios pretend that the movie is actually being released on Friday.

What's up with that? So, they all just decided that they might as well just cheat, and say their movie is released on Friday, when it's actually released on Thursday? Only a difference of a couple hours right, so who cares?

I CARE!!!

I'm sorry, this post is a totally selfish rant, but maybe a few others will appreciate where I'm coming from.

The midnight show was something special. The people who showed up for that were troopers, the real fans. It had an effect on the atmosphere, it could be electric.

So, I guess the tradition of starting the movie at 12:01AM (and thus, technically Friday) is finished? So now I'm forced to share arm-rests with people who might only be nominally excited about the film?

I call shenanigans! Either they change the official release-date to reflect the fact that they're actually releasing it on Friday, or they go back to the way things used to be. Here's one person hoping for the latter.
 
I guess they've been doing that in my area, I think, for maybe a few years now. Could be mistaken. I empathasize with you. (But as a working stiff, and as a working stiff who's getting older, I have to say that the earlier show can be kinda nice...if I have to work the next day.) I was actually surprised this summer when Prometheus was an actual midnight showing.
 
You sure they've been doing it in your area for a few years? I'm not talking about MAJOR tent-pole releases. I'm talking about regular-ol' regular movies that don't even have that much hype. Like, this Thursday, I get to choose between watching either "Admission" and "Olympus has Fallen", at 10PM.

Nobody really cares about those movies. But they're being released, not just in Richmond but all across the nation, at 10PM on Thursday. That's a new thing. And it's been happening with every wide release for the last couple months.

I feel like Dana Carvey's old man, on SNL. Back when I was your age, we had to watch movies at midnight, AND WE LIKED IT!!!
 
In Australia unless they go all 'advanced screening' on us then it is released the day they tell us, Thursday being our standard release day. And if it's more anticipated they have the Thursday 12:01AM showing.

It's pretty cool when the US and Australia get films at the same time as us because ultimately it means we usually get it something like 36 hours earlier because our films are always released on Thursday, yours Friday.

Sucks though that this only happens with very few major releases and never with a smaller title (unless of course it's actually Australian made). The rest of the time we typically get it a month or so after you. Especially around Christmas we are delayed. You get a late November early December release but Australia it seems it has to be a Boxing Day release. Obviously Australia likes their Boxing Day release films....
 
No, right, I was thinking major tent-pole releases, not regular ol' releases. And maybe they haven't been doing it that long either, I dunno. Yeah, that's pretty wild that they're doing that, and I'm not aware of them doing that round here. Huh.
 
There was an entire series of articles about this very same phenomena regarding "Black Friday" sales essentially starting on Thanksgiving night, which meant retail employees were being jerked out of family dinner in order to cater to increasingly impatient shoppers.

Used to be a race to open early in the morning, then the night before, now just after t-Day dinner time.

Welcome to America.
 
Zensteve said:
Calendars. Does your state have 'em? :hmm:

.
Click to expand...

It's nation-wide. The movie officially opens Thursday. Which is weird, anyway. Even though it "opens" Thursday, there are numerous evening showtimes listed tomorrow. And tonight, all across the nation, you can catch a special "preview". And they're gonna include these sales as part of their "opening weekend"?
 
http://boxofficemojo.com/movies/?id=gijoe.htm

Production Budget: $175 million

Total Lifetime Grosses
Domestic: $150,201,498 49.7%
+ Foreign: $152,267,519 50.3%
= Worldwide: $302,469,017

For a wide release film like this distributors gotta bring in revenue double the production budget, assuming a 1:1 budget to P&A ratio.

'Rise of Cobra' did meh...

So, this go round the distributors want that "first week/weekend" to look "as good as possible" just for the headlines, for the benefit of the few lemmings that go for such things.

Basically, every time I see a film goofing around with numbers that's my first indication it's a stinkeroo. Not that I'm shocked and amazed, mind you, that 'Retaliation' is up to this stunt.

Less than gushing:
http://www.totalfilm.com/reviews/cinema/g-i-joe-retaliation
http://www.joblo.com/movie-news/review-gi-joe-retaliation-02
http://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/gi_joe_retaliation/
 
Cracker Funk said:
It's nation-wide.
Click to expand...

It's spreading! The plague is upon us!
smiley_panic.gif
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top