News Round Up: Trailer Running Time/Release Date Change
First things first, I would like to apologise for my absence of late. Being English, and being a londoner, the Royal wedding has completely dominated everything (I actually went down there-got a peek of the bride and the iconic kiss!) but now that the festivities are over, it's time to get back to work-and that's catching up on some of the news of the last few days!
On April 27th, BoxOfficeMojo announced that Warner Bros. has changed the previous set release of August 26th to August 12th, which is fantastic news in terms of having a bit less of a wait. There are however multiple perspectives we need to take into account here. First of all, they are now releasing a week before cinemas are completely swamped with 3D releases, with a record THREE 3D films debuting in the same week....those being Fright Night 3D, Spy Kids 4 3D, and Conan 3D. TFD benefited from being released co-ordinated with a schedule of 3D films, maintaining just enough distance so that it wouldn't suffer from being stripped of 3D screens, an essential part of it's large gross. This year however, see's a huge increase in not just 3D-but 3D screens. So perhaps this isn't too much of a worry, seeing as theatres seem to have made up for the increase in 3D features with digital screens. At the same time, Final Destination benefits from having a past of 2D films-rather than being built plainly on 3D. This reflects well with TFD's gross, with it being split healthily between both 2D and 3D showings; overall mixing together to create a substantially successful opening weekend and domestic gross. So perhaps this isn't really bad news.
It is also noticeable that Warner Bros has decided to release earlier into the Summer, rather than to it's end-when it's primary target audience of teens and young adults are preparing to return to high school and college. With it's August 12th showing, teens can now have the luxury of deciding on a later day to see TFD, go in groups or even see multiple showings. This should benefit well for FD5; and speaks volumes of Warner Bros having a secure level of trust in the final product and it's financial future.
What arguably is the fore fronting matter of relevance is FD5's all important opening weekend, the first few days of gross being the be all or end all for the majority of sequels/reboots and most importantly-horror (I personally categorise FD5 as supernatural thriller, but let's just go with the crowd on this one). If we're just going about it's competition on these particular days, and not it's subsequent weeks following, FD5 SHOULD, and let's not be arrogant here, perform to a satisfying degree. 30 Minutes or Less looks to be it's biggest competition, with the makers of Zombie Land at the helm (not forgetting Jesse Eisenburg). It most certainly will all go down to the trailer...which brings me to..
The British Board of Film Classification have released the running time and certificate of THE TRAILER. It is exactly 2:00 Minutes, and carries a 15 cert. Albert Film Ratings CA have also released it's classification, alternatively weighing in at 1:58 min (same difference). Well, isn't this exciting! A 2:00 Minute trailer is fantastic news, perhaps telling us that they will be going with a narrative structure-also fleshing out characters perhaps along the way. TFD's trailer was ironically around the same running time margin, but just as we all know went from set piece to set piece, spoiling a few deaths along the way. I doubt they want to tread the same paths this time, with them wanting to put the re-boot message into perspective-so I'm thinking we're going to see something very similar to the original FD's trailer. I'll be interested in knowing how much they want to give away this time round, what with the fans loudly exclaiming that they spoiled a good majority of demises-but the critical response of TFD also pressuring them to show "a bit of meat". A necessary evil? Perhaps. Of course no fan wants them to do this, but at the same time you couldn't really blame them if they did.
I personally cannot wait for this trailer. It's going to be our first insight into what they've learnt and how they've gone about starting afresh (again). Will FD be making it's long awaited return to the original in good form? Or will they be retreating the same clumsy routes of the infamous TFD? Only a few days Reapers!
