Reason some American movies open on Thursday instead of Friday?
November 4, 2013 9:02 AM Subscribe
The official release date for the film Thor: Dark World is Friday, November 8th in America. Yet, my local theater chain and presumably others will have viewings on Thursday, some as early as 8pm. Is there a particular reason for this, besides an attempt to make more money on the initial weekend opening?
Mostly, it's just more money. The race to be #1 and set new box office records is ridiculous. It started as midnight screenings, so as to be technically on Friday, with holidays (particularly July 4th) giving studios excuses to open on a Wednesday or Thursday. Then the industry realized that there isn't a government agency that mandates counting only Friday-Sunday receipts.
But then you realize that a midnight Thursday show means they're done at 2 in the goddamn morning and still have to work or go to school the next day. So you're missing out on a fair number of people who just don't want to do that (there are likely more of them than there are of people like tilde who see that as a feature). You make it an 8 p.m. showing (especially for movies that are guaranteed to have teenagers lining up to see the earliest possible screenings), and you get all those people telling their friends at school or the office how awesome the movie is. Word of mouth is still important.
I wouldn't be surprised to find that the decline of network television dominance of Thursday nights has a hand in at as well (both in keeping people at home and allowing for huge ad pushes on Thursday nights when you knew that everyone would be watching Seinfeld and didn't have DVRs to skip over commercials), but really it's pretty much just money.
posted by Etrigan at 9:16 AM on November 4, 2013 [1 favorite]
But then you realize that a midnight Thursday show means they're done at 2 in the goddamn morning and still have to work or go to school the next day. So you're missing out on a fair number of people who just don't want to do that (there are likely more of them than there are of people like tilde who see that as a feature). You make it an 8 p.m. showing (especially for movies that are guaranteed to have teenagers lining up to see the earliest possible screenings), and you get all those people telling their friends at school or the office how awesome the movie is. Word of mouth is still important.
I wouldn't be surprised to find that the decline of network television dominance of Thursday nights has a hand in at as well (both in keeping people at home and allowing for huge ad pushes on Thursday nights when you knew that everyone would be watching Seinfeld and didn't have DVRs to skip over commercials), but really it's pretty much just money.
posted by Etrigan at 9:16 AM on November 4, 2013 [1 favorite]
You've pretty much hit the nail on the head. Theater owners want to get a jump on the first showings for big movies so they can get the revenue instead of their competition across town. Studios don't mind, within reason, because it boosts opening weekend numbers. Some movies actually premiere on Wednesday or Thursday (with late night showings the previous evening) in a more blatant attempt to increase opening "weekend" numbers, at the direction of the studios.
Whenever I see these early showing advertised, I always tell myself, I guess it's Friday somewhere when the credits start rolling!
posted by trivia genius at 9:17 AM on November 4, 2013
Whenever I see these early showing advertised, I always tell myself, I guess it's Friday somewhere when the credits start rolling!
posted by trivia genius at 9:17 AM on November 4, 2013
I noticed this because I'm super psyched about going to see The Hunger Games: Catching Fire and was really confused when tickets went on sale because I was planning to see a midnight showing on Friday but then there were 8pm showings on Thursday. It seems 8pm the night before is the new midnight screening. I'm guessing that it's just money. A lot of movies like The Hunger Games series appeal to kids who shouldn't be up super late and adults who don't want to be exhausted the next day at work. Seriously, I saw a midnight showing of The Hunger Games when it opened and I took a day off the next day because I didn't get home until around 3 a.m. This time I can go to work like a normal human being (yay?).
That said, it also seems like Wednesday openings are becoming less popular, though I have no data behind that, just observational. I feel like these kinds of things are frequently almost gentleman agreements - it's lame to compare weekend receipts from a blockbuster that opened on a Friday to one that opened on a Wednesday so let's all just open on Friday and call it even. Big movies can get a head start the night before.
All bets are off if I actually accidentally bought tickets to a double feature showing of The Hunger Games and that's why it's starting at 8pm. But I'm pretty sure that's not the case.
posted by kat518 at 9:26 AM on November 4, 2013
That said, it also seems like Wednesday openings are becoming less popular, though I have no data behind that, just observational. I feel like these kinds of things are frequently almost gentleman agreements - it's lame to compare weekend receipts from a blockbuster that opened on a Friday to one that opened on a Wednesday so let's all just open on Friday and call it even. Big movies can get a head start the night before.
All bets are off if I actually accidentally bought tickets to a double feature showing of The Hunger Games and that's why it's starting at 8pm. But I'm pretty sure that's not the case.
posted by kat518 at 9:26 AM on November 4, 2013
Also, Thursdays are the quietest night of the week in most cinemas, so it is an effort to boost business*. I went to see Pacific Rim in 3-D IMAX on the opening night (a Thursday), and a friend who was even more enthusiastic about it than I decided not to go because he did not want to fight the crowds. I suggested "crowds" and "Guillermo del Toro film starring Charlie Hunnam and Rinko Kikuchi" were concepts not naturally yoked together, but he was sure it would be a madhouse and skipped it. As it turned out, there were maybe thirty people in a theatre for 700.
*Thirty years ago, Tuesdays were the dead evening, so cinemas in this part of the the world began doing reduced-price admissions, Now it is Thursday that is quietest, so much so that the last time I saw something in the local megaplex, they had one staffer working the box office: one person selling tickets for twelve screens with some 3000 seats total. She was not overly busy.
posted by ricochet biscuit at 10:38 AM on November 4, 2013
*Thirty years ago, Tuesdays were the dead evening, so cinemas in this part of the the world began doing reduced-price admissions, Now it is Thursday that is quietest, so much so that the last time I saw something in the local megaplex, they had one staffer working the box office: one person selling tickets for twelve screens with some 3000 seats total. She was not overly busy.
posted by ricochet biscuit at 10:38 AM on November 4, 2013
The other reason is that receipts for most movies drop off drastically in the second week, especially during summer, so they want to squeeze every dollar out of the first week.
posted by cnc at 12:55 PM on November 4, 2013
posted by cnc at 12:55 PM on November 4, 2013
I'm sure it is mostly money, but there are some theatres that screen all the movies in a trilogy/series before playing the newest one and they don't want to take that much screentime on a Friday night.
I know Alamo Drafthouse is screening Thor, the Avengers, and the newest Thor back to back on Thursday and they're double-featuring the Hunger Games when it comes out, too. For Thor, it's eight ridiculous hours (starting at 3pm and going till 11pm or so) and no way do you want eight hours of prime Friday screen time to be eaten up like that.
posted by librarylis at 9:10 PM on November 4, 2013
I know Alamo Drafthouse is screening Thor, the Avengers, and the newest Thor back to back on Thursday and they're double-featuring the Hunger Games when it comes out, too. For Thor, it's eight ridiculous hours (starting at 3pm and going till 11pm or so) and no way do you want eight hours of prime Friday screen time to be eaten up like that.
posted by librarylis at 9:10 PM on November 4, 2013
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We'd go to avoid children of inappropriate age or yammer heads chatting through the whole thing, or for a costumed/themed event.
posted by tilde at 9:12 AM on November 4, 2013