I just realized that Steven Spielberg has one movie coming out on 12/21 (Adventures of TinTin) and another coming out on 12/25 (War Horse), each vying for a chunk of Xmas box office. How ballsy is that? It ain’t James Cameron who’s king of the world.
Can anyone think of another director (or even producer) who has double-dipped like this?
It is unusual. Basically, he finished TinTin quite awhile ago and had time to plan and film an entire movie while that one went through post-production.
I’m trying to think of another, but nothing comes to mind.
Spielberg also executive produced the two TV series, Falling Skies and Terra Nova - and to be honest both kinda sucked.
Hopefully he gets back to form with these films.
If you believe the “Speilberg really directed Poltergeist” rumors, then he did it before back in the summer of 1982, when E.T. and Poltergeist were released a week apart. Even if you believe Tobe Hooper directed Poltergeist, Speilberg was still a very involved producer
Probably happened in the 30s. I see Woody Van Dyke has Manhattan Melodrama released on May 4, 1934 and The Thin Man on May 25, which meant the first film was still in theaters.
Spielberg does have a habit of releasing an adventure movie and a “serious” movie in the same year: Schindler’s List and Jurassic Park, Amistad and The Lost World, War of the Worlds and Munich. I don’t know if they were ever released this close together, though.
I’m not sure he ever lost his form. Remember, he was only executive producer for those shows and he has a producer credit on 129 different projects since 1978. That’s an average of four a year, so not all of them are going to be gems. Hell, he has 12 producer credits for this year alone!
As to the OP and films Speilberg has directed and not just produced, Speilberg has come close to doing this before. Looking through his director credits, he’s had two different films released in 1989, 1993, 1997, 2002, 2005, and now 2011. Up to now they’ve had a few months separating them, but the man is so prolific that an overlap was bound to happen sometime.
I’ll be darned. I had no idea those came out back-to-back, but the tones are so similar I’m not surprised. (well, a little surprised because I recall taking different dates to each of those movies, but whatever)
Good summary, thanks! Between these 2 films, Girl With the Dragon Tattoo, and MI4, we’ll see if there’s enough Xmas box office to go around.
If we look at Speilberg’s producer credits for this year already we get:
Super 8 June 10
Transformers: Dark of the Moon June 28
that’s two right there. there’s also:
Cowboys and Aliens July 29 and
Real Steel October 8
depending on how far you want to take it out