Robert

I've read that Harrison Ford threatened to never make another movie for Paramount if they released Titanic at the same time as Air Force One.

Shonn

Peter Pan (2003) - ROTK was released a couple weeks before it and they put it up against another family film. I'm not sure when it would have done better, february or march maybe, but it certainly deserved a heck of a lot more than it got.

digidoh

I think Never Say Never Again (1983) would've done better at the box office if it had been released in the Summer of 1984 rather than October '83, just 4 months after Octopussy.

pdinosaur

apparently weird al became very depressed when UHF failed at the box office, when raiders of the lost ark and other such ran up against it.

Mhepburn20

First movie that popped into my head just upon seeing the subject title was Star Trek: Nemesis. The film had been expected to do much better than it did. While I myself did not enjoy the film, releasing it the friday prior to the wednesday opening of Two Towers had to be one of the dumbest moves I have ever seen any of the paramount folks do with star trek. The casual fan went to go see Rings instead and when the die-hards pretty much hated it, any chance it had to make money went in the toilet. Had the movie been released in march of the next year, I think it would have doubled it's take at minimum.

pdinosaur

I can't second this. I think star trek has just dried up. it might not be dead, but someone needs to let it lay fallow for a change

RogueScribner

It was actually released a month and a half before Braveheart. In the States anyway.

Where did you hear that? Titanic was pushed back due to going over schedule, not a threat from Harrison Ford. Cameron simply couldn't make his release date. It's not like that's the first time his movies went over schedule and budget.

L8r

DthRdrX

The Spiderman project had been in the works since James Cameron was interested in directing it, in the early 90s.

Dr. DVD

I cannot help but think that Minority Report would have done better in the Fall of 2002 than Summer. Granted, it had a big summer look and vibe to it, but its lack of action got it buried by other summer movies. I think that had it come out in the fall when there wasn't as much competition around the bend, it could have been the one film to dominate the season, which tends to happen a lot in fall.

littlefuzzy

Big Trouble might have done much better if it had been released in an alternate timeline, where 9/11 had never happened...

jaeufraser

Actually, Harrison Ford did call Paramount and tell them not to place Titanic against his film. The film was noted for having problems, and was moved from its 4th of July date. They were considering the same weekend as Air Force One, which was unlikely anyway, but he did make the call.

Here's a story from many years ago...

"LOS ANGELES (AP) -- "Titanic," the most expensive movie ever made, will miss its original July 2 release date by more than six months to allow director James Cameron more time to complete the disaster epic. With a price tag that could exceed $200 million, "Titanic" will debut December 19, U.S. distributor Paramount Pictures said Tuesday. The announcement followed wide speculation in Hollywood that the film would not be ready in time for the lucrative July 4th holiday weekend, but would probably debut later in the summer. "The decision to push was a difficult one which required us to compare the rising curve of compromises to the film against the descending curve of commercial gain in late summer," said Robert Friedman, vice chairman of Paramount's Motion Picture Group, in a statement. Pushing the date back to December could cost Paramount millions in unrealized box-office receipts during the less-lucrative Christmas holiday season, plus added charges for extended financing of the film. But it also takes the film out of what is considered the most competitive summer ever. The film's release date was considered so important that even Harrison Ford called Paramount insisting that the movie not clash with his summer film, "Air Force One." Distributors shuffle films to make up for delay Cameron, who says he is waiving all of his fees for making "Titanic," said the delayed opening showed Paramount's confidence in the film's box-office potential. Historically, summer is Hollywood's biggest money-making season. This Memorial Day weekend, "The Lost World: Jurassic Park" took in a record $90.2 million. Paramount already has said it was moving its John Travolta-Nicolas Cage film, "Face Off," to June 27 to make up for the "Titanic" delay. Twentieth Century Fox, which is distributing "Titanic" internationally, is releasing the Jack Lemmon-Walter Matthau comedy "Out to Sea"-- once set for May -- to help take up the July 2 slack. The film about the ill-fated luxury ocean liner stars Leonardo DiCaprio, Kate Winslet, Billy Zane and Kathy Bates. There have been numerous reports of problems on the film's Baja California set, including Cameron's obsession with detail that ran up costs while running down the cast and crew. Cameron reportedly insisted on meticulous historical accuracy down to the logo on dining room china and revised entire shots to make sure each piece of furniture was in the right place."

I'm sure that wasn't the deciding factor for not going to that date, but it seems it did happen. It's funny reading that though. Back then I'm pretty sure nobody had even an inkling of an idea of the type of business this movie would do.

dryars

Collateral Damage anyone?

Rypro 525

anyone think that if elektra would have been released in dec of 04, it would have made a tad more then it did

nightmaster

This one came to my mind as well. If I remember the buzz at the time correctly they were both slated to be released about the same time, and NSNA is the movie that blinked- actually I think there were some delays and they simply couldn't get it released before Octopussy, which they had hoped to do. I agree, it should have been allowed to sit on the shelf until the following summer so there would be no Bond movie in sight forward or backward taking away it's thunder.

nightmaster

When listening to the John Carpenter commentary on Big Trouble In Little China I think he and Kurt Russell were talking about it being released at the same time as Raiders Of The Lost Ark. Not the best time for a movie to find an audience!

Drexl

Yes, they should have released it later, like five years after Raiders.

UKingdom

the girl next door. terrible timing.

dhmac

The Iron Giant - the late Summer release and a surprise hit in The Sixth Sense doomed it. Around the Holidays, it may have done better (but, then again, Toy Story 2 came out that Holiday season, so maybe not).

Bcolon

I agree on Star Trek Nemesis. LOTR just killed it. I think that December was also a Harry Potter December, so it was a double wammy with Star Trek being released between two 300 million dollar movies.

I consider myself a huge star trek fan, not freakish mind you. I am not an official crew member of a Star Fleet vessal like a coworker of mine. Anyways... I really enjoyed Nemesis. I am not sure it needs a rest as much as a changing of the guard in the creative department.

Back on topic, I think the moving of Serenity from late April this year to September was probably a good idea. Get it as far away from Sith as possible. It might have done ok in March though. Counter programming to Hitch.

Neeb

License to Kill was released in the US in Summer 1989. If the producers had waited until X-Mas 1989 it would have debuted near the US invasion of Panama and probably earned a few more dollars off the zeitgeist of James Bond fighting drug runners while US troops did the same thing.

chess

Donnie Darko's release was limited following 9-11. Plane parts falling from the sky and whatnot.

It's not really blockbuster material, but I'm guessing it would have done a bit of business.

pdinosaur

i think this merits the google Cookie of the Day.

that said, how about Phone Booth.

They pulled it because it just happened to coincide with the DC sniper. i say screw compassion and run with public paranoia.

this is why political correctness has gone too far. back in the 50s, we had an entire genre dedicated to public paranoia over the atomic age and aliens.

now we're pulling a single movie that just happened to approach its release date at the same time as an unfortunate real event? pssh.

pdinosaur

a ha. along the lines of phone booth

i don't think darko suffered too much from 911. similar yes, but as a whole i think no one knew what to make of the movie regardless of what happened in NY.

Matthew Chmiel

Newmarket could've released Donnie Darko at a later date, but for Donnie Darko to actually make money, Newmarket would have to pull it's head out it's ass to do so first.

Filmmaker

LOL!