Why open a movie on Wednesday? (King Kong)

[WrongWay]

Every once in a while I see a BlockBuster type movie do this, an open on a Wednesday. I don't understand why a Movie would want to do this. By not including the first 2 days the movie is released; wouldn't this actually hurt your opening Weekend numbers?

I understand the midnight showings on Thursday for an extra "Weekend" performance, but I just don't get the Wednesday opening.

Why start the movie during the middle of the week? Are they worried about Weekend competition? Do they save any money by doing this? I wonder what theater owners think about this?

Why not just wait untill Thursday night at Midnight?

[Celeval]

If there's a rabid fanbase for the movie, all the big fans go see it Wednesday/Thursday, and 'normal' people feel safer going on Friday. :-D

[cthomer5000]

It allows people to watch the movie on Wednesday, watch Michelle Wie play in a tournament on Thursday, and go buy a "Elmo Knows Your Name" on Friday night.

[Raiders Army]

Originally Posted by cthomer5000

It allows people to watch the movie on Wednesday, watch Michelle Wie play in a tournament on Thursday, and go buy a "Elmo Knows Your Name" on Friday night.

pwned

[Joe]

I don't know, Passion of the Christ did alright by opening on a Wednesday

[gottimd]

Leonard Part 6 should've opened up on a Wednesday.

[sterlingice]

Tons of big movies open on Wednesday (Star Wars, Spider-man, Matrix, LotR, etc) exactly for the reason stated- if there's going to be enough sales to fill up theaters on the weekend, try to get those "must watch the first showing" people out of the way because they'll go whenever and that gets more butts in the seats for the entire week. I'm sure the theaters mind bumping some 3 week old romantic comedy and bad horror movie two days early for a couple of sold out theaters at practically every showing.

SI

[WrongWay]

Originally Posted by sterlingice

I'm sure the theaters mind bumping some 3 week old romantic comedy and bad horror movie two days early for a couple of sold out theaters at practically every showing.

Hold on there partner. If King Kong will be playing in the biggest rooms and on the Biggest screens in theaters, doesn't this mean that Kong will be bouncing The Chronicles of Narnia out of the big rooms on December 14th? I am assuming The Chronicles of Narnia will be playing all the big rooms during its opening week.

From a dollar perspective the Theater owners are losing money by not having The Chronicles of Narnia for 1 full week worth of Sell outs and then getting King Kong the next week.

All this assumes The Chronicles of Narnia will be a great movie and have the ability to pack in an audience for it's first week.

Most of the theaters in my area have one giant room and then about a dozen smaller rooms

[kcchief19]

Oh for the love of Pete.

[kcchief19]

Originally Posted by cthomer5000

It allows people to watch the movie on Wednesday, watch Michelle Wie play in a tournament on Thursday, and go buy a "Elmo Knows Your Name" on Friday night.

That's it -- we have our winner. Let's close the thread now.

[WrongWay]

Originally Posted by sterlingice

Tons of big movies open on Wednesday (Star Wars, Spider-man, Matrix, LotR, etc)
SI

This is why I asked my question. So, your saying they are doing it to help the theater owners out.

I always thought of the Hollywood types as being ego maniacs and opeing your movie on a Wednesday would probably hurt it's weekend box office numbers. And, don't people always talk about who had the biggest opeing weekend? That is why I thought the movies with a cult like following had those midnight showings on Thursday Night to jack up their weekend numbers.

[Galaxy]

I hope you are not a business executive.

[sterlingice]

Originally Posted by WrongWay

Hold on there partner. If King Kong will be playing in the biggest rooms and on the Biggest screens in theaters, doesn't this mean that Kong will be bouncing The Chronicles of Narnia out of the big rooms on December 14th? I am assuming The Chronicles of Narnia will be playing all the big rooms during its opening week.

From a dollar perspective the Theater owners are losing money by not having The Chronicles of Narnia for 1 full week worth of Sell outs and then getting King Kong the next week.

All this assumes The Chronicles of Narnia will be a great movie and have the ability to pack in an audience for it's first week.

Most of the theaters in my area have one giant room and then about a dozen smaller rooms

Yes, but that assumes 1) the vast importance of the large screen in your theater over all the others and 2) that it will be Narnia screens that are bounced. The majority of theaters now are 12+ plexes and you'll see Narnia and Kong take up nearly 50% of those screens. Neither of those will lose out on screens except those big screens- there might be a little tussle for those, but really, insignificant in the grand scheme of things. So, Narnia will open the first week with 3 screens including the big one and then the next week, Kong will get the 3 screens including the big one with Narnia moving to 3 normal sized screens instead of 2 + 1 big. In total, all they lose is the Wednesday and Thursday, not huge movie days (unless we're talking Christmas, Thanksgiving or another holiday) of Narnia on the big screens versus the normal screens on a movie that will have been out for 6 and 7 days already.

Originally Posted by WrongWay

This is why I asked my question. So, your saying they are doing it to help the theater owners out.

I always thought of the Hollywood types as being ego maniacs and opeing your movie on a Wednesday would probably hurt it's weekend box office numbers. And, don't people always talk about who had the biggest opeing weekend? That is why I thought the movies with a cult like following had those midnight showings on Thursday Night to jack up their weekend numbers.

Oh, hell no- you're 100% correct. They're both doing it in their own best interests. The theaters still get to bump some scrub movie out of their theater a couple of days early in favor of more King Kong screens- a win/win both for both Universal and theaters.

SI

[kiwiLB57]

Narnia and King Kong fighting for the American movie goers dollar. Another blockbuster year for the Californian film industry.

Wait. Just a minute.

Narnia and Kong both filmed in New Zealand? Both directed by New Zealanders? Both with special effects and production effects by WETA, a New Zealand world beating FX house?

(Sorry, but there are so few of us down here and so many cows and sheep, it does get lonely and there is no-one to brag to to. I will try and contain myself and my silly patriotic notions. And nobody mention the cricket and we will all get along fine.)

www.newzealand.com

[Pumpy Tudors]

Originally Posted by kiwiLB57

(Sorry, but there are so few of us down here and so many cows and sheep, it does get lonely and there is no-one to brag to to. I will try and contain myself and my silly patriotic notions. And nobody mention the cricket and we will all get along fine.)

www.newzealand.com

To paraphrase weather comedian Lewis Black, if you guys want to join the community, you should all jump off your little island and push it closer.

[Ksyrup]

Originally Posted by Pumpy Tudors

To paraphrase weather comedian Lewis Black, if you guys want to join the community, you should all jump off your little island and push it closer.

LOL! I forgot all about his weather stand-up job. Did you get that from his weather channel stuff, or is that just from his typical routine?

[thetrilogy]

"#1 movie of the week"
"#1 action film of the week"

The movie studios push opening a film earlier in the week to INFLATE their tickets sales in attendance and gross. So that when you see a movie setting a new record in money, it's been inflated because of the early release.

These people control what makes money and what doesn't:

http://www.entdata.com

They track and total ticket sales and attendance.
So, King Kong is being released early to inflate it's numbers to the public. In turn, more people will buy the hype and go see it themselves the next week and so on.

[Pumpy Tudors]

Originally Posted by Ksyrup

LOL! I forgot all about his weather stand-up job. Did you get that from his weather channel stuff, or is that just from his typical routine?

I actually haven't seen him on the Weather Channel. The New Zealand bit is from his regular act. I wonder if he's even still on the Weather Channel, and if he is, what time. I'd like to see it at least once.