Back in 1977, Star Wars made summertime the best time to release an action film, and Memorial Day has become money movie day in the states. If you can, you launch your big budget extravaganza on Memorial Day. That gives your movie the biggest chance to succeed. But that being said, the movie companies aren’t stupid about it. They know that even an avid movie fan rarely spends more than 2 hours in a movie theatre any given week.
In 1999, Star Wars Episode I decided it would release on Memorial Day. Rather than everyone try to dogpile on that day, every other movie decided to cede the coveted Memorial Day release to the big dog. The lone exception was Notting Hill, a chick flick marketed as a movie mom could watch while the kids were geeking out in the next studio over. Can you imagine geek movie history if The Matrix had decided to release the same weekend?
So what does this have to do with us? Well, we, in the games industry, are collectively stupid, that’s what.
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