“Transformers: Dark of the Moon” will now open on Wednesday June 29 instead of Friday July 1. This should come as no surprise, as it’s heading into the 4th of July weekend, when Wednesday releases are common. In fact 2009’s “Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen” opened on a Wednesday (June 24) and it made $62 million that first day, and another $29M that Thursday.
But Wednesday hasn’t always been a great day to open a film. Last summer, “The Twilight Saga: Eclipse” opened on Wednesday, June 30 and even though it made 68M that first day, the 3-day weekend total was only 69M. So just because a studio gets the money early it doesn’t mean they wouldn’t have gotten that same money just a few days later.
Disney’s “The Sorcerer’s Apprentice” had a Wednesday opening last July (14th), two days before “Inception” came out, and it bombed.
The one Wednesday that always seem to work is the day before Thanksgiving. Kids are out of school, looking for something to do, and families know they’ll be busy on Thursday eating and watching football and Friday Christmas shopping, so a movie makes sense before all the holiday craziness starts. Of course the studios know this as well, which is why you’ll always have a big holiday films opening on Thanksgiving Eve. This year it will be three: “Arthur Christmas”, “The Muppets” and “Hugo Cabret”.