I like how it says they want to change the release date because of how confident they're in the film. You know, so much confidence that they're worried about the competition.
Nah. Both film franchises are in precarious places right now, so I think it's better to let them have their Thunderdome moment.
Unless the Aquaman trailer makes for some unstoppable buzz then it seems like the better choice to make a move. Bumblebee has managed to build some pretty strong buzz so two films with great buzz on the same weekend is just going to hurt the box office for both movies. Plus the article makes a good point of it might not hurt to put a little distance between superhero movies. An animated Spider Man movie could be a wild card that brings in both kids because hey a cool cartoon and Spider Man is a huge pop culture name among even the casual super hero fans. Then the wild card of could Miles play huge after Black Panther showed there is a big market for minority heroes.
Bumblebee should move as Aquaman had that date first. There was no reason for Paramount to choose that date; the competition will only hurt them both. They could've chosen it some date later or before, but not that same date.
A film could be a straight-up masterpiece but still suffer from a bad release date. It makes total sense to avoid competition to maximize profit.
I will probably see Aquaman either way, though it moving might allow me to also see Spider-Man or maybe even Battle Angel Alita, which I am very on the fence about (worried it will stray too much from the manga...) I won't see Bumblebee either way, since Bay and Lorenzo are on board as producers still. If any film should move its date, it should be Bumblebee, and it should move to the 31st of Never. Seriously though, I think it will be Bumblebee, not Aquaman, that is squeezed to death because of too much competition in December. The buzz for Aquaman has been pretty positive so far compared to the mixed buzz of JL and BvS. And its not just Aquaman: theres also Mortal Engines and the animated Spider-Man film, which have both gotten lots of hype and could each possibly top Aquaman. Battle Angel Alita could very possibly bomb (which I am expecting ), but it could be dark horse success too. All that, and a Mary Poppins film on top . Who knows how THAT will go. The only thing in Bumblebees favor is they really only need, I dunno, 250 mil or so to break even with their 100 mil budget + additional costs like advertising, so even a box office even lower than TLK's franchise record low, say around 4-500m, would still make the film a financial success. But still, I really don't think the odds are in Bumblebees favor at all here. Its chance of being a blockbuster is pretty much zip.
