Midnight Shows become 8PM on a Thursday.. impact? (1 Viewer)

[mattCR]

I've noticed this is becoming a trend, and I wonder how the impact of this is going to play out. Today, Oblivion opened in all of our local theaters at 8PM on Thursday..

I'm wondering how this plays out. In the past, Thursday nights were the big night for TV Networks who would use Thursday to advertise and promote that Friday's film release.
But if the Big Release is now going to routinely open on a Thursday night during prime time, will TV networks have to adjust? Will we see more signature programming moving to Wednesday and away from Thursday?

Or will more films just keep creeping earlier and earlier? Maybe just open on random days?

 

[Mark-P]

They must have had a special dispensation to do that. Normally a theater cannot legally show a movie before its release date, hence 12am being the earliest they can show it.

 

[MattAlbie60]

Yeah, some movies can and some movies can't. I remember seeing KICK ASS at like 9PM on the Thursday before it opened on Friday.

It's great. I wish more people would do it, ha.

 

[Ejanss]

Rather like the days when studios used to show "Advanced screenings", pretending they were "sneak previews" to get advance audience word for a low-tracking title, but not coincidentally, usually showing on a slow weekend with nothing opening and the big movie coming next week.

As for how it will "impact" the industry...eh, it's just Oblivion. You tell me.

 

[MattAlbie60]

I'd either take more 8PM shows, or more shows like a local theater here did with THE DARK KNIGHT RISES. They had midnight shows, and then a wave of like 3:00AM shows, and then normal hours starting at about 9AM. I went to a 3:00AM show and it was amazing. I got to sleep beforehand and by the time it got out I was wide awake and ready for the day. Normally I'm down for at least the morning after a midnight show because I turn into a sleepy boy.

 

[TravisR]

I'm wondering how this plays out. In the past, Thursday nights were the big night for TV Networks who would use Thursday to advertise and promote that Friday's film release.
But if the Big Release is now going to routinely open on a Thursday night during prime time, will TV networks have to adjust? Will we see more signature programming moving to Wednesday and away from Thursday?

I don't think it will have much impact on TV because 'normal' people will still wait until Friday or Saturday to see a movie and so Thursday will likely remain a big night for advertising movies.

 

[mattCR]

Well, so far locally over the last few weeks, MOST of the "big" films did this. Oz did it. Oblivion did it last night. Just wondering if it's a trend.

 

[TravisR]

^ I'd say that it's a trend. A number of movies this year have been doing it. The Last Stand (the Schwarzenegger movie) from January or so was the first one that I noticed. I'm guessing that all of the big summer releases will do it too.

 

[todd s]

I remember this starting a year or so ago near me. But, in that first few times it happened. It was a special deal at the AMC theatre. If you were Stubs member you could buy tickets for an 8pm showing of Breaking Dawn.

 

[Michael Elliott]

I don't know the rules but quite a few movies have been shown a lot earlier than the old midnight first showing. One theater around me doesn't do the midnights and just started doing them at 10pm. When another theater learned of this they started having 10pm and midnight screenings. Then yet another theater started opening the movies at 9pm. Before this year I had only went to one midnight screening of a new film but I've done it quite a few times here recently. GANGSTER SQUAD was the only film that was somewhat busy but even this only had about 15 people. THE LAST EXORCISM II, BULLET TO THE HEAD, THE LAST STAND and a couple others had me by myself or one or two other people. It just seems like Thursday is a dead zone at this theater so it doesn't matter if they open a movie early or not.