Films Released on Wednesdays

[Ash]

Why are certain films released on a Wednesday when most are released on Fridays?  

How do they determine which films will be released on that day?

The Matrix Reloaded was released and Matrix Revolutions will be released on a Wednesday.

It is a rare thing for the studios to do this.

Anyone know why?

[The Burgomaster]

When I was a kid, I'm pretty sure that the norm was to release movies on Wednesdays rather than Fridays.

I'm not sure exactly when they made the switch or why.

One reason for Wednesday releases might be to "beef up" the box office statistics. Movies that open on Wednesdays get 2 additional days added to their "opening weekend gross." This may result in a movie being #1 rather than #2 when the weekend box office results are calculated on Monday.

Those clever Hollywood bastards . . .



Post Edited (10-28-03 15:31)

[-=NiGHTS=-]

Alien is re-released this Wednesday, too.  Strangely enough.

[Susan]

I think they do it to create a little buzz for the upcoming weekend (since the opening weekend is always the biggest)

[Conrad]

Over here, films used to be released on a Wednesday, and I recall one of our film pundits explaining the explanation the BFI had given for altering the release to a ... Thursday.  All to do with predicted monetary returns, apparently, from what little I remember.

[yaddo42]

Some films are released on Wednesday to get the jump on the weekend releases around crowded release weekends or to take advantage of a long holiday weekend.

I've read that studios also sometimes release films on Wednesday when the film is black-themed or expected to be popular with black audiences in some kind of plan to prevent outbreaks of violence in theaters. Supposedly the younger "wilder" audiences who go on the opening night are less likely to riot or act up on weeknights without hurting the box office. This whole idea sounds pretty goofy and racist to me.

[dean]

we normally have films released on thursdays here, though matrix reloaded, from memory, was released on a wednesday.  

yeah, i agree that releasing them early is just a ploy to get good box office results for the opening weekend.  

but i have a question.  when they show the results of, say, best opening weekend for the year, would they take this extra two days into account?  because if they didn't, i can imagine that a few movies would get screwed out of a mention because they opened later than some other films.