In case you don’t already know, I, like many young women my age, have fallen under the spell of the charming, handsome prankster Mr. Jim Halpert, aka John Krasinski of NBC’s “The Office.” I have all three seasons on DVD, the calendar, a coffee mug and Dunder Mifflin pens, pencils and stationary. Some people may label it sad or obsessive, but my friends and family prefer to call it endearing and sweet.
After paying 10 bucks to watch him fight an overly manic Robin Williams in “License to Wed,” I was more than ecstatic to hear about his new film role in the 1920’s football drama “Leatherheads,” vying for the affections of Renee Zellweger against George Clooney, who also adapted the screenplay and directed the film.
Unfortunately, after doing my daily Hollywood blog update, I learned from “Thompson on Hollywood” that the film had been pushed back to April from its original, early December release date so Clooney can have the proper amount of time to edit the film.
After months of anticipation, I now have to wait even longer and because of what? Because when it comes to publicity and reserving a date on the all-important release calendar, it seems the movie business is too eager to make the sell without keeping tabs on the film itself. They tell you one thing and then take it back, and that’s just not cool.
As elaborated in my last column, Hollywood is all about the hype. Understandable, considering the big six studios usually have anywhere from $25 to $300 million dollars running on a single motion picture’s success ““ a crucial part of that success being the film’s release date.
With big-budget blockbusters such as this past summer’s “Transformers” and next summer’s “Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull,” the scheduled release date (the Fourth of July and Memorial Day weekend, respectively) are basically announced in the same breath as the film itself. Like a singer removing their last name to move to that next level of star status and diva-dom, the date is a tool to supposedly reiterate the magnitude of the motion picture.
But while there may be those few cyber geeks who literally mark their Battlestar Galactica calendars once a big title’s release date is set, most of the American public could care less about a particular film until a month in advance (or two to three if you’re lucky), when the billboards and constant commercials get to be too much to ignore.
So why stake out a date if you’re not sure the film will be ready ““ especially when there is so much damage to be done by taking it back.
Movie studios need only to look at the recent past to understand the huge downside of going public too soon.
Take for instance this past May’s “Lucky You.” It had A-list star Drew Barrymore, big-name director Curtis Hanson from “L.A. Confidential” and a fairly appealing plot (a poker player and a lounge singer fall in love under the bright lights of Las Vegas). It might not have been Shakespeare, but it had a good chance of making a quick buck after wrapping production in early 2005.
However, Warner Brothers pushed the release date from September 2006 back to March 2007 at the last minute, starting buzz that the studio had a real stinker on their hands. By the time the film was actually released on May 4, 2007, these big delays had made up the public’s mind.
The film was purposefully put up against “Spider-man 3″ to disappear quietly after it gained such bad notoriety from its constantly changing opening date. “Lucky You” did just that, making a total of $5.8 million dollars nationwide. That’s Hollywood, baby!
I’m not saying that with a consistent release date “Lucky You” would have struck a stronger cord with movie audience, but why put a $55 million movie to waste against “Spider-man 3″ when studio heads could just wait until the troublesome project was in the bag before announcing when the film will be coming out?
There are those occasional films that overcome bumped release dates and subsequent bad press; like this little film called “Titanic” that was planned to rule the box office the summer of 1997, but went on to conquer a December release date to take over the Christmas box office and later, the world.
While an optimistic example, this usually is far from the norm, with most films like “Lucky You” suffering box office death directly because of their delays.
So while it may take big bucks to be the early bird (I don’t know any studio that would want to go against the new Indie movie on Memorial Day weekend), it’s even more costly to prematurely call a safe.
And until those showbiz executives learn their lesson, I’ll just patiently sit back and wait for “Leatherheads.” But I’ll try not to hold my breath.
If you want to arm wrestle Stanhope for the heart of John Krasinski, e-mail her at kstanhope@media.ucla.edu.