Studios’ midweek releases help drive weekend sales

Published 2:52 pm Thursday, August 7, 2008

HOLLYWOOD — Pink is the new black, 50 is the new 40 and, when it comes to summer movies, Wednesday has become the new Friday.

Between now and Labor Day, major studios and independent distributors are releasing more than half a dozen new films on a Wednesday, usually considered one of the slowest days of the week for movie attendance.

Although this week’s national Wednesday premieres, including Sony’s “Pineapple Express” and Warner Bros.’ “The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants 2,” opened two days early in part to avoid the start of the 2008 Olympics, the midweek theatrical openings are largely designed to maximize positive buzz so the new releases can hit Friday with a full head of steam.

Overture Films will release Don Cheadle’s terrorist drama “Traitor” on Aug. 27 in order to get a jump on the Labor Day holiday. “We just believe releasing it on a Wednesday before a four-day weekend is like having a rolling sneak preview,” said Chris McGurk.

Said Jack Foley, distribution chief for Focus Features, whose comedy “Hamlet 2” will move into wide release on Aug. 27: “You get a lot of positive word of mouth going into the weekend. You have two days of people validating the movie locally.”

While summer receipts for “The Dark Knight” are so stunning it’s not a fair predictor of any other movie’s performance, the Batman sequel’s midweek numbers have shown that moviegoers will flock to the multiplex on days other than the weekend.

Thanks in part to so much midweek attendance, total summer grosses are up about 1 percent from last year, when domestic ticket sales hit a record $4.16 billion. Total summer admissions, however, are down more than 3 percent, with the higher grosses driven by an average national ticket price of $7.16, according to new data.

Some distributors say the summer’s overall returns — coupled with the consistent midweek revenue — suggest that people hurt by the struggling economy are going to the movies rather than taking vacations.

Sony moved up the release of “Pineapple Express” to Wednesday for several reasons: to avoid the Olympics, to separate itself by a week from next Wednesday’s “Tropic Thunder” and to generate early heat for its R-rated stoner comedy.

A hidden benefit of the Wednesday premiere is specific to adult comedies.

“The hardest genre to market is the R-rated comedy,” said Paramount Vice Chairman Rob Moore, “because you can’t show the movie’s funniest moments on television.”