The announcement by Disney that “Star Wars: Episode VII” will be released Dec. 18, 2015 is not only exciting news, but it also means the studios behind the two films previously set to debut on that date – “Inferno” (Sony) and “Warcraft” (Universal) – have to be scrambling to find new spots to open.
Either or both could move up a week to Dec. 11, where the only competition right now is “Alvin and the Chipmunks 4”. Each of the previous six “Star Wars” films opened in May. It’ll be interesting to see how an Awards Season release affects the box office.
And “Star Wars VII” will also share a release day with another somewhat successful film that hit theaters on Dec. 18, 2009: a little Sci-Fi adventure called “Avatar”.
Disney’s other big news – moving the “Tomorrowland” release from December 12, 2014 to May 22, 2015. This means a couple of things for the Mouse House:
1) It enhances Disney’s already impressive 2015 calendar, which also includes (besides “Star Wars VII”): “Cinderella”, “Avengers: Age of Ultron”, “Inside Out”, “Ant-Man” and “The Good Dinosaur”. Wow!
2) It allows the studio to be able to focus on “Into the Woods” in Dec. 2014, instead of having to split its attention/promotional efforts between the two films.