This is a stupid move. The OW will suffer. But the 2nd weekend will have a great drop.

This Might cause the opening weekend to fall short unless they get the ton of marketing material with may 4th pulled off advertisements.

Someone may be yanking everyone's chain with their twitter account, as no official press release has gone out.

Definately agree with moving Rampage up a week now, What if Fox F's with them by moving Deadpool up to the 4th weekend.....

Yeah this is a great move IMO. Not only because it will help legs, but also because no one will really have to worry about spoilers since most will be seeing it at the same time. Its not like its anything new either because Fast Five did this as well, but those first two weekends of May are definitely going to be weak, and Rampage is pretty much fucked now lol.

So Disney made a last minute move to open IW day-and-date with other overseas markets. I think the reason behind it was that they believe the movie is not going to have very good audience reception.

Well going by that reasoning it sounds like they would have been better off releasing it the same day and date as the U.S. Even if they hadn't changed it people who have already seen it OS would have let everyone know what the quality of the movie was which could have be just as damaging if even more so than just waiting a week.

I honestly think its a move based on them wanting to avoid potentially huge spoilers getting out before everyone has had the chance to see it, but who knows you could right as well.

April weekend record

This would've been a good time for Deadpool to move to May 11 but eh.

Who would have thought just 4-5 years ago that we'd soon see the top 3 biggest openers of all time released in December and April!!

They wanted the April record and to not beat their own May record, and maybe to see if they could pull off all time record in April. Smells mostly like ego. Eventually we'll have a different genre of Marvel/Disney/SW every month of the year.

Apart from making billions, Disney is just wanting to provide content for their streaming service. Hope that service flops to be honest.

I still believe they moved it up one week because Robert Downey Jr. wanted to see it with his friends earlier...

They want to set the all time worldwide weekend record

That would be a positive yes. Maybe I was a little harsh.

Though I think the quality of movies made for streaming will improve over time anyway as the studios focus more and more on event films and the mid size film becomes a streaming staple.

Disney don't see themselves as being in direct competition with Netflix and co. as they have a limited range of branded titles vs. Netflix insane volume. I guess it all depends if consumers want to pay for yet another streaming service. Time will tell.

Netflix/Amazon make non-IP movies, not necessarily shit movies. Some are very good movies.

Hulu don't make movies and is co-owned by Disney, Fox (soon under Disney), and Universal. It looks like Netflix will soon part way with Disney's Marvel, seeking other IP deals (Stupid to help Disney grow its brand.).

I don't think that's true. With its streaming service launching soon, Disney is going to pull a substantial part of its library (and Fox's too) from Netflix, granting its new streaming service exclusive access. It is in direct competition with Netflix and Amazon in streaming service.

I can name a few Netflix movies that have earned great reviews: Beasts of No Nation, Okja, Gerald's Game, The Meyerowitz Stories and Mudbound. The main difference between Netflix/Amazon and Disney in movie production is Netflix/Amazon take on a more independent/ creative project-based approach and Disney brands only do IPs.

It seemed weird to me that this was gonna open a week earlier overseas than in the U.S., considering that there are probably some major things happening that can/would get spoiled. I know the other Avengers movies did the same thing, but there's even more shit happening in this one, I'm sure.

Still, very surprised they went with it. I'm fascinated more than anything. At least this spreads out the mega-openers slightly.

They don't see themselves as in direct competition even though they are to an extent. That's also their way of saying - keep Netflix but pay for our service for these awesome franchises. So in essence they are backing on quality (major brands) over quantity.

Keen to see what they can do with the SW TV series they are planning.

Yeah, competition between streaming services doesn't exist to the extent that competition exists between films shown theatrically. The buy-in is much less, and with binge watching being such a thing these days, viewers can have multiple services and view many more films than the traditional way.

Nah, Disney has the quantity too. Remember they have the whole film library from Marvel, Pixar, Touchstone, Fox, etc, and their TV divisions (Disney, FX, ESPN, etc). It will be much more than a Netflix with a giant advantage in TV/cable/theatrical content and distribution network. In economics term, it is a vertical integration.

What Disney is doing is to combine content and distribution with their existing network infrastructure. With the pending acquisition of Fox, I think their network is big enough to keep competition from using their content and distribution.

I don't think Netflix/Amazon can compete with that.

Most Marvel movies opened a week earlier internationally to take advantage of Labor Day - which is May 1st all over the world except the U.S.

I'm assuming they just want to avoid spoilers when one of the Avengers dies

One day people will see their original TV shows have been just as flawed this whole time.