Are Studios announcing movies too early?

[CyclopsWasRight]

Nowadays it's become common practice to announce movies years in advance. I was just thinking to myself is it too early to announce them.

Marvel Studios has just spoken about how they have things planned out until 2028, they often announce release dates for movies without saying what characters the movies will be about.

Sony announced Amazing Spider-Man 3 & 4 before Amazing Spider-Man 2 had completed post-production and announced expanded universe movies

20th Century Fox has announced the sequels to X-Men days of Future Past, The Wolverine and Fantastic Four Reborn.

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Question: Are studios announcing projects to the public too early?

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[jonathancrane]

Nope.

 

[CyclopsWasRight]

Thanks for your input

I'm just curious how others feel. I'm happy they're all coming, it's just that sequels to sequels announced for four years or more away seems early to me.

 

[jonathancrane]

To elaborate: there are a few exceptions. Fox should have never announced FF until all of the volatile parts were handled properly. The media coverage around the production has evolved into a circus.

 

[jmc]

It's not exactly a new thing, Bond movies were traditional planned 1-2 films ahead back in the day. The problem I suppose comes when something unforeseen happens like scheduling delay or cast member injury or director dropping out.

 

[CyclopsWasRight]

Oh I don't men planning ahead I mean announcing them to the public so far in advance

 

[jmc]

Well the Bond series did that at the end of every movie up until the mid-90's, announcing what the next film was going to be 2-3 years ahead of time. It's a lot more prevalent now that's all.

 

[marvelrobbins]

Yes.

I feel like Disney and Marvel studios shouldn't announce release dates till they
are willing to tell us what the films are. Same thing with Fox they shouldn't announce a 2018 project If they can't say what film It it.

 

[eplo]

Yes, fox shouldn't announce a FF sequel when there is still a chance the first one bombs.

 

[Quasimod0]

Don't tell us when a movie is coming out unless you are sure you will make that deadline. Then we wouldn't have a BvS fiasco.
I realize though that unexpected things do happen sometimes and delays are necessary.

 

[samsnee]

With Hollywood becoming more and more franchise oriented, they have to unless they want another studio to take that weekend spot. Pretty soon, every major new release from May to September will either be a superhero movie, Star Wars movie, or Transformers movie.

 

[weezerspider]

I'd say so. Independent cinema doesn't set release dates until the film is far into post-production. That doesn't mean all independent films are good, but very rarely do you see one that feels rushed. I've seen plenty of blockbusters in my time that had potential, but ultimately felt rushed and unfinished. I mean, seriously, setting a Spiderman release date eight months ahead instead of four years isn't going to cost you money.

 

[Son of Coul]

Calling the release dates ahead of time is essentially just calling dibs on the big days to avoid a Cap3/BvS fiasco, though because of this we see it isn't exactly fail-safe. I think Marvel's methods of calling certain dates while holding back on titles until appropriate times is best though. DC hasn't officially announced anything, but that seems to be a byproduct of just not thinking too far ahead at the moment; unless they have some killer plan they're genuinely keeping under wraps but I doubt it.

On the opposite end, I think Sony announcing that entire slate is kind of a silly move and only builds confused interest instead of the Avengers-like hype they're looking for. I think they're hoping for their endgame to get asses in seats rather than what's at hand, a criticism MS faced when in the Phase 1 stage. That's what concerns me about ASM2 for the time being.

But in the end, I like being surprised, and hearing about a movie's official announcement is probably best when they hire the director and get the ball rolling. Then again, Sony's done that with their slate (mostly), so maybe it is a decent time.

 

[Hush]

I think it happens far too often, announce one film not 4.

 

[henzINNIT]

I enjoy the speculation and discussion (shock, horror) around new projects but it's gotten a little out of hand with how far out some movies are. It's understandable though. The major studios need to carve out dates to ensure they make their money. It's like an arms race, and I don't see it getting any better in the future. Pretty neutral on it really.

 

[samsnee]

Sony announcing a new Spider-man related movie every year was just a bad move. It just reeks of overkill.

 

[Heretic]

The fact that I've seen more talk about X-Men Apocalypse than I have about the X-Men movie coming out next month tells me that Days of Future Past likely isn't very good and I should watch it on Netflix.

 

[eplo]

The fact that I've seen more talk about X-Men Apocalypse than I have about the X-Men movie coming out next month tells me that Days of Future Past likely isn't very good and I should watch it on Netflix.

Or it tells you
A) that people have been talking about DoFP for so long that they are ready to talk about something else
B) some people like apocalypse comics more then DoFP
C)it's late enough we won't find out anything new to talk about DoFP until reviews start coming out

 

[MessiahDecoy123]

There's nothing wrong with planning ahead.

If you know what movie you want to release 5 years from now why pretend you don't.

To simply make things easier on your competitors?

 

[CyclopsWasRight]

The fact that I've seen more talk about X-Men Apocalypse than I have about the X-Men movie coming out next month tells me that Days of Future Past likely isn't very good and I should watch it on Netflix.

There's only more talk because there was a recent interview with some talk. When info is released people talk about it, the news only releases every so often so people chat about it. There's far more DOFP news to apocalypse

 

[Spider-Fan83]

I think the fact that they are/can plan ahead with these types of movies, shows are far they've come along...

when they started making these new era of comic book hero movie, no one new if they would take, or how long they last, so, movies were more or less made to be solo movies (not knowing if they'd get greenlite for sequels)

but, if you not only know that your going to get 3-4 movies, but already have they release dates set, an everything, it allows the writers and film makers to create more cohesive story lines, an set future storylines up early on in the first movie, or early sequels...

 

[mclay18]

I think they are.

And the problem extends to not only comic-book movies, but franchises in general. I personally thought Summit/Lionsgate was sticking their foot in their mouth when they set the release date for Insurgent before the first one came out. They're lucky Divergent is doing well enough to avoid that, but still... it's jumping the gun.

For me, studios ought to get scripts completed and have some sort of long-term plan laid out before announcing release dates.

 

[psylockolussus]

No. Because it helps the early buzz of the film and it informs the public/fans that they have a long-game plan for the series.