The release calendar is shifting once again, Summit Entertainment‘s highly anticipated adaptation of the Stephenie Meyer teen vampire romance novel “Twilight” has moved from its Dec. 12 perch to Nov. 21, the date just vacated by Warner Bros.' “Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince.”
Explaining about the changes of release date schedule, co-chairman and CEO of Summit Entertainment Rob Friedman stated that the bumping up offers them the chance to present the movie on more screens. He also noted:
“When Warner Bros. decided to move ‘Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince' to the summer of 2009, we saw a unique opportunity to slot in our film which has been gaining tremendous awareness and momentum over the past several months.”
Friedman added that they were not trying to replace the Potter franchise for this year.
“We by no means are trying to fill the shoes of the incredible Potter franchise for 2008, rather we are just looking to bring the fans of Stephenie Meyer's incredible book series the film as soon possible from a programming perspective.”
So what does this actually mean? For Harry Potter, absolutely nothing. That film is going to make a killing no matter when it comes out – rest assured that all of those angry Potter fans will get over it. For Twilight however, this means that it will get a crack at opening on the Thanksgiving holiday weekend. This will put it in a much better financial position, at least as far as we can tell at this point.
“Twilight” tells the story of 17-year-old Bella Swan (Stewart) who moves to the small town of Forks, Washington to live with her father, and becomes drawn to Edward Cullen (Pattinson), a pale, mysterious classmate who seems determined to push her away. But neither can deny the attraction that pulls them together…even when Edward confides that he and his family are vampires. Their unorthodox romance puts her in physical danger when Edward's nemesis comes to town and sets his sights on Bella.
