Save the Date

[MovieBob]

Save the Date

Where you live determines when you'll get to see a movie, but that may not be true tomorrow.

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[JoJo]

I really hope this changes soon, there's been a couple of films recently (Cloud Atlas and Wreck-It Ralph) which have come out in the U.S. now but won't be out in the UK until February, which in today's modern market is absolutely unjustifiable. I won't pirate them since I don't believe in doing so but I'm sure many of my fellow countrymen won't be quite so scrupulous. I wouldn't be surprised if the firms marketing them are still running on decade's old schedules, maybe once the newer Internet generation gets into business they'll finally wake up and smell the coffee.

 

[Albino Boo]

America goes on holiday in July because it started out as just another part of the British empire. Those former parts account for all most 1/4 of the worlds land surface and just under 1/2 the worlds population. The vast majority of them, in common in the US, go holiday in July. Americans tend forget that an awful lot of the traditions come from the Britain and they are not the only ones to have inherited them.

 

[gardian06]

so the flow was: this is what I leaned in school, how Scheduling "logic" of releases happens, small (I want to say) rant on piracy, doom saying that Bob wishes he knew more about Chinese culture....

it would be an interesting idea to have movies release world wide same day (or at least within a few days to a week), but I see an issue that as Bob alluded to a large amount of the population in several area's won't actually care when it is released because it doesn't line up with their interests (for the time of year) at the time.

though this does raise a point that Bob didn't really mention is that usually the language (non-subtitled sections) that the film is recorded in is usually the one in which the film is to gross the most money, and by proxy the language that the majority of the cast is expected to know, so if the new target audience will be the Chinese population at large at what point will the original dubbing be in Chinese (probably Manderine due to commonality), and then localized into English, and all other "languages of interest)?

 

[RA92]

Well, I would add the PC gamers' woe to it, but apparently we don't exist, so there you go...

 

[MB202]

I think Bob covered this in this podcast he appeared on; basically, opening movies in different regions at different dates is only going to encourage more pirating from impatient people. Eventually, they're going to have to start opening movies globally on the same date. Hopefully soon... I feel bad for the people who can't see Wreck-It Ralph yet...

 

[Entitled]

I wouldn't be too worried about China becoming a main consumer of Hollywood, by the time they will have enough consumption, they will also have a big enough media of their own, that can be fit to Chinese culture.

The only reason why western world itself is being dominated by American culture, is because individually, countries like Slovakia or Belgium or Ireland or Australia don't don't have enough of a paying audience to justify they own big-budget movie production industries.

It's going to be a multipolar world, with an Indian and a Chinese pop-culture and media going parallell with the US-centric one.

 

[Steve the Pocket]

By the time we've done away with region-specific release schedules, we'll probably have done away with movie theaters altogether, and films will just "unlock" for streaming over the Internet whenever the studio feels like it. Hopefully this will also come with studios no longer really caring what time of year the film is released at all, since a movie will still be playing in all of the same "theaters" it originally released in a year later and people can get around to seeing it whenever they get around to seeing it.

I wouldn't be too worried about China becoming a main consumer of Hollywood, by the time they will have enough consumption, they will also have a big enough media of their own, that can be fit to Chinese culture.

I dunno. I read somewhere that a big part of why we've been getting so many dumb action films lately is that it's easy to ensure a dumb action film is both accessible to a foreign audience and passes muster with the Chinese censorship standards.

 

[Entitled]

I wouldn't be too worried about China becoming a main consumer of Hollywood, by the time they will have enough consumption, they will also have a big enough media of their own, that can be fit to Chinese culture.

I dunno. I read somewhere that a big part of why we've been getting so many dumb action films lately is that it's easy to ensure a dumb action film is both accessible to a foreign audience and passes muster with the Chinese censorship standards.

The first half of that statement is familiar from a Cracked article, though that was still mostly applied to the western world.

By the way, it can be applied to anything mainstream, from AAA video games to pop music, that are all necesarily pandering to the Lowest Common Denominator: the more large-scale a project is, the less it will be customized to your personal knowledge, taste, upbringing, etc.

And the thing about mainstream things is, that pretty much everyone hates them, even the ones consuming them. We just tolerate them, because they are the only alternative for those kind of large budget genres. But beyond a certain level, to be accessible to literally everyone on Earth, they would have to go so full retard, that it would be hard to even tolerate them, and it would be more profitable for the studios to only pander to the 1-2 billion people right around them that are already a profitable audience on their own.

 

[Baldry]

America goes on holiday in July because it started out as just another part of the British empire. Those former parts account for all most 1/4 of the worlds land surface and just under 1/2 the worlds population. The vast majority of them, in common in the US, go holiday in July. Americans tend forget that an awful lot of the traditions come from the Britain and they are not the only ones to have inherited them.

Are you blaming us British?! My good sir I take offence. I for one love the holidays being in July since it's one of the few times there's sun, if you don't like it you should of changed it when you rebelled.

OT: This was a good read, I've personally always wondered why America, more often then not, released films of themselves first instead of worldwide, I always thought it was just because they were cocky and all "WOOOH AMERICA! FUCK YEAH!". Never thought about the southern hemispheres, I'll have to think on this.

 

[Albino Boo]

America goes on holiday in July because it started out as just another part of the British empire. Those former parts account for all most 1/4 of the worlds land surface and just under 1/2 the worlds population. The vast majority of them, in common in the US, go holiday in July. Americans tend forget that an awful lot of the traditions come from the Britain and they are not the only ones to have inherited them.

Are you blaming us British?! My good sir I take offence. I for one love the holidays being in July since it's one of the few times there's sun, if you don't like it you should of changed it when you rebelled.

OT: This was a good read, I've personally always wondered why America, more often then not, released films of themselves first instead of worldwide, I always thought it was just because they were cocky and all "WOOOH AMERICA! FUCK YEAH!". Never thought about the southern hemispheres, I'll have to think on this.

Small, but rather important point, I am actually British. The holidays are in July for the rather simple reason that children used have to hepl getting the harvest in way back in the 1300s when the UK school system began.

 

[Evil Smurf]

I have to wait months for some films to come out sometimes in Australia. This is why I don't really watch movies in the cinema. I'll just buy the DVD for as much as the digital copy and rip it to my hard drive.

 

[Triaed]

School vacation in China is end of June, July and August... similar to 'Merica
(yeah, I know it was rhetorical)

 

[vxicepickxv]

School vacation in China is end of June, July and August... similar to 'Merica
(yeah, I know it was rhetorical)

Because of farming, you will find that most schools have a similar release schedule, although they're not going to be the same. Smaller countries(land wise) typically would need to spend less time harvesting, so they would spend more time in school.

 

[Baldry]

America goes on holiday in July because it started out as just another part of the British empire. Those former parts account for all most 1/4 of the worlds land surface and just under 1/2 the worlds population. The vast majority of them, in common in the US, go holiday in July. Americans tend forget that an awful lot of the traditions come from the Britain and they are not the only ones to have inherited them.

Are you blaming us British?! My good sir I take offence. I for one love the holidays being in July since it's one of the few times there's sun, if you don't like it you should of changed it when you rebelled.

OT: This was a good read, I've personally always wondered why America, more often then not, released films of themselves first instead of worldwide, I always thought it was just because they were cocky and all "WOOOH AMERICA! FUCK YEAH!". Never thought about the southern hemispheres, I'll have to think on this.

Small, but rather important point, I am actually British. The holidays are in July for the rather simple reason that children used have to hepl getting the harvest in way back in the 1300s when the UK school system began.

Well that's a damn surprise, don't see many people outside of America try and defend America. And the harvest point is kinda world wide thing.

 

[The_Waspman]

On the other hand, we here in England (and by extension Europe) have gotten quite a few bigger releases before the states recently. I mean, we got Avengers a week before America did. I have no idea how that happened. Weren't there two other summer releases we got first as well?

EDIT: Just remembered, we also got Battleship first. Uh, yeah... Thanks for that...

 

[Steve the Pocket]

By the way, it can be applied to anything mainstream, from AAA video games to pop music, that are all necesarily pandering to the Lowest Common Denominator: the more large-scale a project is, the less it will be customized to your personal knowledge, taste, upbringing, etc.

And the thing about mainstream things is, that pretty much everyone hates them, even the ones consuming them. We just tolerate them, because they are the only alternative for those kind of large budget genres.

That's a good point, and something most people probably don't grasp. Popular but stupid movies aren't all created equal. There's a difference between something like Twilight, that has a large, lucrative niche audience that loves it for the same reasons everyone else hates it, and a mainstream movie (would Transformers fit here? The Expendables? I dunno) that nobody really loves to death but has enough people who think it's okay to be a box office hit anyway, and gets a lot of people disgusted by how popular it was.

 

[marurder]

Chinese vacation begins in the middle of July (15th) and finishes at the end of September.

The 'winter' vacation changes depending on when Spring Festival starts, which is based on the lunar calender. Usually mid-January (15th) to end of February. It lasts a week.

In addition to these 2 main holidays are smaller ones (used to be known as the Golden Weeks) but have since been cut down in size to just 1-3 days each, with the sole exception of National day (October 1st) which lasts for a week.

Christmas isn't recognized other than being an excuse to sell things and put up decorations (commercialism). Halloween isn't either. Most assume Thanksgiving is celebrated by everyone in the west. Chinese Valentines day is the 7th/7th of the Lunar calendar (August-ish).

 

[Arcane Azmadi]

God-damn this is true and god-damn it pisses me off! I wanted to go See Wreck-It Ralph with my best friend, but guess what? It isn't out in Australia until December 26th! So my friend decided he can't be bothered waiting that long and he's just going to pirate it as soon as he can because frankly, if the system is telling us "fuck you" then he's more than happy to fuck it right back. But I want to see it on the big screen, which is a PROBLEM because I hate going to the movies on my own and my friend won't want to go if he's already seen it. I'm going to have to bank on getting someone else to go with me all because Australia is a fucking second-class country for movie schedules. PLEASE tell me we're getting past this shit sometime soon...

 

[Guffe]

Interesting read, as someone who doesn't watch that many movies this was a nice read, learning something new about the Big Picture of things.