STAR WARS - IF IT'S WEDNESDAY IT MUST BE FRIDAY

IF IT'S WEDNESDAY IT MUST BE FRIDAY

Yet another major release -- this one, DreamWorks/Paramount's Tropic Thunder -- is debuting on a Wednesday, raising the question of whether Wednesday is becoming the new Friday so far as film studios are concerned. Last week, analysts speculated that the debut of Pineapple Express had been moved to Wednesday in order to avoid having to compete with the opening of the Summer Olympics. This week, some are speculating that Thunder was moved to Wednesday to get a step up on Star Wars The Clone Wars , which is due out on Friday. But Chad Hartigan, an analyst for Exhibitor Relations and its sibling Reel Source, told E! Online that the actual reason is August itself. The studios, he said, are looking to expand the number of days their films are in studios before the end of the month when kids begin preparing to return to school. That is particularly the case with male teens, who drive the box office during the summer, and it is no coincidence, he suggested, that the Wednesday openers are particularly targeted at them.

13/08/2008