As you may have heard, earlier this week Warner Bros. decided to move the release date for the highly-anticipated Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice from May 6, 2016 to March 25, 2016. Ever since the film initially moved to the May 6th date, many fans, including our own Ed Douglas, begged one of the two companies to do the sensible thing and move the film. Now that it has happened, Warner Bros.’ president of domestic distribution Dan Fellman spoke with EW about why their most recent move is the smart thing to do.
“The reality now is there really isn’t a bad week to open a movie,” Fellman said. “If you look at the summer box office this year, you can see that there were so many movies, one after the other. You can start with Spider-Man, two weeks later Godzilla, and then Maleficent, and then Edge of Tomorrow, and then Jump Street and Transformers. And the one thing they all had in common, not one of them did over $250 million. We’ll be the first one up [in 2016], which is very important, and we’ll have six weeks before Captain America comes in.”
Fellman also confirmed that the initial push of the film’s release date of July 2015 to May 2016, and landing on the same day as Marvel’s Captain America 3, was because they believed Marvel Studios wouldn’t have a film ready to release on that date.
“In terms of going back and reviewing the situation, it looked to us–and maybe our reconnaissance wasn’t great–that they were not going to have a movie [ready] on that date. Just that they held onto it and they might not be able to deliver. But they took another position.”
Fellman also teased that at least a few of the recently dated DC films will likely be announced by the end of the month, and reportedly said that we might not have to wait long for the first official Justice League team-up following “Batman v Superman.”
“While it hasn’t been officially announced, I think it’s a pretty good bet.”
Sound off with your theories on what Warner Bros. could be announcing below!
