Rescheduling of Bond cinema tied to 'Harry Potter' departure
Harry split the scene, so 007 moved in for the kill.
Sony's Columbia Pictures and MGM said Thursday that the following James Bond film, "Quantum of Solace," will displace back one week to Nov. 14. That move is nearly tied to the late departure of Warner Bros.' "Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince" from its Nov. 21 release berth.
Just last week, the one-sixth "Potter" film newly ingrained its domestic flag on July 17 as executives sought to fill a hole in Warners' summer 2009 slate. The most immediate reply to that move was Summit Entertainment moving its youth-targeted lamia film "Twilight" up ternary weeks into the vacated "Potter" slot.
Now Sony execs -- world Health Organization have had been want for a release date closer to Thanksgiving and the vacation boxoffice season for their next Bond release -- have interpreted "Solace" to a suddenly much more attractive time slot. After all, Bond's premature perch on Nov. 7 was intended to maximise pre-"Potter" playtime.
Scratch that worry.
" 'Harry Potter' moving out gave us an chance to bugger off a little closer to the holidays, which has always been the traditional Bond place," Sony worldwide marketing and distribution president Jeff Blake said. "Bond has a really good history of not but playing through Thanksgiving only going deep into the Christmas holidays."
Sony unspooled the most recent Bond film, "Casino Royale," on Nov. 17, 2006, and the Daniel Craig starrer still was playing in around 1,hundred theaters betwixt the following Christmas and New Year's, Blake noted.
Sony, which is a minority stake possessor of MGM, holds planetary theatrical rights to the two most recent Bond movies, with longtime Bond franchise co-owner MGM controlling all post-theatrical windows. (The other co-owner of the Bond body of work is the Broccoli family's Eon Prods.)
Three other domestic wide releases are localise for Nov. 14: Fox's Baz Luhrmann-helmed adventure "Australia," starring Hugh Jackman and Nicole Kidman; the MGM comedy "Soul Men," toplined by Samuel L. Jackson and Bernie Mac; and Overture's Freddy Rodriguez starrer "Nothing Like the Holidays."
Universal's comedy "Role Models," with Paul Rudd and Seann William Scott, also had been go down for Nov. 14. But just a few hours after word spread of Sony's move with its Bond cinema, Universal affected the drollery up one week to Nov. 7, where the Paramount-distributed DreamWorks Animation sequel "Madagascar: Escape 2 Africa" now represents its sole wide rival.
Besides "Twilight," deuce other domestic wide releases are set for Nov. 21. Those include "Bolt" from Disney -- which always has a bighearted release bowing over the Turkey Day play period -- and DreamWorks/Paramount's "The Soloist," a drama around the family relationship between Los Angeles Times columnist Steve Lopez (Robert Downey Jr.) and a violin-playing homeless man (Jamie Foxx).
Internationally, Bond films tend to get under one's skin an in the beginning jump in the U.K. So "Solace" will catch a world premiere Oct. 29 in London, followed two days later by its U.K. opening.
Sony said Prince William and Prince Harry will attend the world premiere.
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