Not that I’d begrudge Tolkein fans the extra two days, but why did the Two Towers get a Wednesday release? Ulness it’s The week of Thankgiving or a late-week July 4th, new movies invariably get released on Fridays (here in the USA).
In retrospect, I probably could have asked this question last year as well, but didn’t
Same reason as Star Wars (which has traditionally been released, IIRC, the Wednesday before Memorial Day). To give it a couple extra days of play before the holiday weekend. A film released on the weekend right before Christmas might suffer from a slightly lower box office as people might be travelling, doing things with their families, etc.
Also, there are a lot of “big” pictures released around Christmastime and everybody wants to have their own slot. The film that’s expected to do well, such as LOTR, usually drives away all the other films to other dates so their openings don’t suffer as a result.
To piss [url=http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?s=&threadid=151214]BZ00000
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off?
I always assumed it was for word of mouth. If a movie comes out on Friday, the word of mouth doesn’t really get going until the following Monday (when everyone returns to work?). If it comes out on Wednesday, the word of mouth starts right before the weekend, so when people are planning out what to do, it’s top of mind.
Not that LOTR needs any more awareness than it already has, really.
An excellent one-word summary of the OP and, in fact, most of that particular poster’s entire history on the SDMB.
Well done.
Enjoy,
Steven
To keep it from conflicting with the final episode of Firefly.
They want as much time for good word of mouth as they can get. By comparison, a studio that knows it’s movie is crap releases on a Friday to catch the first wave of suckers unawares.
New Zealand “new releases” always start on Thursday.
TTT began on the stroke of Midnight (where Wednesday technically becomes Thursday.)
This screening time only applies to movies with a long anticipated release.
So if it has been released on Wednesday in the States, maybe it is to keep the Kiwis from flooding the internet with spoilers in that brief space of time? 
Or maybe so everyone feels they can get to enjoy it at the same time in some global happy event…? 
(Being that our Thursday midnight is realtime approximate with Wednesday (U.S.) in the grand scheme of things)
Who knows.
Anyway, I liked it, and my favourite bit was when the*- snip!*
… 
In addition to boosting the “opening weekend” box office, movies with large fan followings are often released on Friday so the rabid viewers will go the first two days, thereby clearing the schedule for the more casual weekend viewer. Otherwise there would be a logjam, and the casual viewer might get frustrated at the sellouts and decide to wait for video after all.
Uh, I meant, “movies with large fan followings are often released on Wednesday” in order to clear the weekend for the casual viewer.
:smack:
How could we not, when you bring so much to the thread?
From what I saw today at the AMC, I’d say they did it so they could push Star Trek: Nemesis off the mondo-screens and onto the somewhat-smaller ones.
This just in- The Two Towers grossed $26 million in ONE DAY in the US.
Compare that to the $16 million it grossed in 14 other countries on that same day.
Gee, I guess we really were anxious to see it…
Don’t forget the friggin increases on ticket sales in the last couple of years.
That $26M is an estimate. Real numbers won’t be out until Friday afternoon. As an FYI - New Line has a known history of underestimating its daily numbers, possibly because they do not normally do daily figures. Also, there is some conflicting evidence as to whether that figure includes the midnight showings. According to this Yahoo News Article, it does not. OTOH, rival studios were estimating $27-28M earlier in the day, and they have no reason not to include the numbers. Depending on the exact story on those midnight number, the final may be $26M, and it might go over $30M.
I’d also say the rest of the world was just as anxious. The movie has shattered opening day records in Germany & Denmark. There are now solid predictions TTT may overtake Harry Potter I in Britain, based on ticket presales.