Are You Sure About That Date?

So, the movie Ultraviolet, which was one of the only movies I was looking forward to seeing during these first few months of dead air at the local cineplex, has now been moved into March for it's release date. And that was its second move within a day. All I have to say is - Why? Apparently, the studio decided to move it from Feb 24 to March 31, which made no sense at all considering it would then be up against Ice Age 2 and Basic Instinct 2 and Slither. Then they realized their folly, and moved it to March 3rd, which puts it up against 16 Blocks. Now why would they do that? The Bruce Willis movie will open strong, as most of his do, leaving Ultraviolet in the dust. And all along they had Feb. 24 to themselves and could have owned that weekend. Now, I'm not saying Ultraviolet will be any good, as I don't really know anything except from the trailers which look really cool. It just boggles the mind why the studio execs would move it around like that. Picking the right weekend to open a movie can make or break it. Take for example, the movie Serenity. I still think they lost money on it by moving it to the end of September. By then, people were back in school, moving on with busier lives, and the summer movie dollars had been spent. Burying it in the middle of fall didn't do it any favors. Just like when The Punisher opened against Kill Bill 2 - what were they thinking?! The Punisher would have done a whole lot better on a different weekend. As a movie fan, when a movie comes along that you actually like and may have the legs for a sequel, you can only hope that the studio doesn't screw it up and put it in the wrong weekend which kills the box office and therefore kills the sequel hopes. Just goes to show how out of touch Hollywood is with the rest of the world. It's a shame its never about the story - it's all about the money. Speaking of which, the movie Basic Instinct 2 (which I have no intention of seeing), recently downgraded it's rating from NC17 to R. As soon as I read that, I thought: "What a blatant money grab for a future Unrated Directors Cut of a triple-dipping DVD sale." The funny thing is The Movie Blog posted the news later and he said basically the same thing. It's all about the money - and they're not even trying to hide it anymore. At least they're starting to be honest about their greed and the fact they're going to try to rip you off...