In short, Guardians’ of the Galaxy delivered. I took a rare trip this past week to the movie theatre to go and watch something.
As I queued up earlier in the Showcase lobby for my ticket - there nearby stood a large 6ft ‘3D’ layered stand advertising the upcoming Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles movie. It was a brilliant spectacle as far as printed cardboard goes. A couple in front of me in the ticket queue were talking about the stand and thought it was awesome. I couldn’t help also overhearing them wonder when it was out. I chipped in and told them October 17th. The stand didn’t specify a release date. It just said ‘Coming Soon in 3D’ along the bottom. The guy asked me, “Are you serious!? That’s like, 9 weeks away and America’s got it next week”. He could tell I was a fan by the Casey Jones shirt I was wearing. I nodded in agreement and said that someone out there made a bad decision with the release date.
Of course the date has also not been very well informed publicly.
It’s a movie. So what? I have more important stuff in life to be concerned about than a passive medium such as a movie. The release decision baffles me for 2 main reasons:
- 1. Selfishly, I am a long-term Ninja Turtles fan. I want to watch this around the same time as most cinema-goers around the globe. By the time I get around to watching this flick, half of the movie will be spoiled for me 2 months beforehand, unless I take a drastic social media fast. I also won’t go into the whole piracy issue. It harkens back to 24 years ago when VHS copies of the original Jim Henson movie were doing the rounds at school for £3 each. Moral compass directed ‘no’ back then and always will
- 2. I am a media studies graduate who has studied the workings of Hollywood and the revenue feature films make. This is not how I’d treat a big money-making property regardless whether or not I’m a fan of the material. Surely a worldwide release date with the USA and elsewhere would make for a huge summer holiday rake-in instead of October term time. The obvious business sense speaks for itself. Furthermore, a DVD/Blu Ray release before Christmas would also be unlikely. If a home release did happen in time for the festive season, it would mean the movie wouldn’t have a lot of time on the big screen. The process would be foolishly rushed.
Poor launches and marketing (Cinema and DVD) either hurt the possibility of sequels or prompts a better strategy if there is a next time around. The Turtles movie property is probably lined up for sequels anyway – so why purposely get things wrong the first time? The whole thing is a no-brainer to anyone. I have contacted Paramount UK to ask for an explanation behind the release decision. The only conclusion I can loosely come to is that Dwayne Johnson vehicle Hercules (2014) (which was recently launched at this time) is probably the current focus of the company (and first egg out of the basket). ‘The Rock’ himself is a big brand in his own right, but Hercules (2014) has at least had a worldwide release. No word on when or if a reply will come.
I’ll update this blog entry if something surfaces. I should be maybe building a cardboard fortress with my kids or taking a walk, but this release date silliness has been on my mind a while. Therefore a blog (to quote Comic-Book Guy) declaring my ‘disgust to the whole world’ had to be published.
Perhaps, the release date will change. Who knows.
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http://rpwp.blogspot.co.uk/2014/07/tmnt-2014-from-uk-tmnt-fan.html
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