How Studios Mess with Release Dates

cine-shutter-feb-dateMore like why? WHY? This reshuffling date thing is really becoming an annoying trend. First, it was Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince, switching from Nov. ’08 to July ’09, which had me yelling at the computer screen when I read it. Now, they are pushing back Martin Scorsese’s very creepy, film noirish Shutter Island, from October to Feb. ’09. What gives?

Paramount/Dreamworks blames it on the economic downturn, claiming they wouldn’t be able to properly market the psychological thriller about two U.S. Marshals investigating the disappearance of a patient at a remote island asylum for the criminally insane in a field of competing films, including their releases Up in the Air (a comedy) and The Lovely Bones (serious drama). They say Shutter Island would get a better chance for success if it was released in February. Meanwhile, the dark comedy Zombieland and Drew Barrymore’s roller derby comedy Whip It are moving up their own October release dates to maximize the open slot.

While I understand the logic to all of this, I just hate the fact that they’ve totally titillated me with the premise and trailer and now it’s like, “SYKE!” Kinda ticks me off. Here’s the trailer to Shutter Island again, just to see what we have to wait even LONGER for now: