We reported before Christmas that Edgar Wright’s “Scott Pilgrim Versus The World” finally had a release date, in the UK at least – August 27th. We speculated at the time that in the US, it would either be released in the States day-and-date, or, more likely, a week earlier, in the same slot as “Inglourious Basterds” (the French release date turned out to be August 18th)
Well, it looks like things may have changed a bit, as Universal have moved the U.K. date up to August 6th— we received an email from the Film Distributor’s Association with a complete release schedule for the next few years, with Pilgrim in its new date. What does this mean for the US date?
The release schedule in the U.K. gets a little screwy every four years, because cinema attendance among men drops dramatically during the World Cup (between June 11th and July 11th this year), which means that big June openings like “The A-Team,” “Jonah Hex” and “Knight & Day” get delayed, which has a knock-on effect on other releases, so “Scott Pilgrim” could be opening sometime in July, or even earlier. In the U.S., July’s pretty heavy with geek action movies (and we imagine that’s how it’ll be sold, with the comedy and romance aspects taking a back seat in the marketing), and we imagine Universal will be steering clear of “Inception,” “Predators” and “Salt.”
However, late July/early August is also heavy on comedy, with “Dinner for Schmucks,” the studio’s own “Meet the Fockers” sequel and “The Other Guys” opening in successive weeks. An August 6th release in the US would mean going head-to-head with the latter, and with “Step Up 3-D,”; probably not the best case scenario for the film, which isn’t necessarily one of the easiest marketing jobs the studio’s ever had.
It’s not inconceivable that the film could open in the U.K. first — both “Taken” and “Children of Men” hit Europe months in advance of the U.S., and August 20th still looks to us like the best slot for the movie. But in reality, it looks like everyone will have a little less long to wait for one of the most eagerly anticipated films of the year.
In addition, scanning the schedule (which you can see for yourself here) we noticed that David O Russell’s “The Fighter,” the boxing drama starring Mark Wahlberg, Christian Bale and Amy Adams, is set for release on Friday November 26th, which gives an idea of when it can be expected in the States (although we imagine it’ll get a gradual roll out).
