The Latest Date Changes 2: The New Batch

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After screening at SXSW earlier this week, Hypnotic's long journey to theaters appears to be almost over. It's set to release wide on May 12 through 1st time distributor Ketchup Entertainment.

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Ketchup was a VOD distributor in the early teens. They might have been relaunched like Open Road was.

And I thought Hypnotic was now called The Grey Guardians because Netflix had a film called Hypnotic come out a while back.

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I'm not aware of any title change. It screened under the title Hypnotic at SXSW and Deadline used that title to report the news of its confirmed theatrical release.

In other news, the R-rated comedy that moved off of June 23rd is....... Joy Ride. It's now set to open July 7th.

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Wouldn't be surprised if Harold and the Purple Crayon went to July 7th and Insidious 5 went to the fall. No way you'll see two big budget titles aimed towards the same audience opening on the same day.

As for Hypnotic, it had gotten a title change back when Solstice was still planning to release it and close the label after the film opened. But it is possible that Netflix never registered the title to the MPA.

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It looks like 4/20's become the day to wake, bake, and watch Broken Lizard movies. That's when Quasi hits Hulu.

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A Good Person is opening wide right away on Friday. Can't say I'm surprised as I'm sure it wouldn't have had a good response in limited release.

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Looks like Enys Men will be at least a semi-wide release on the 31st. My local arthouse is advertising a sneak preview two days earlier.

A Thousand and One will be previewed at Alamo Drafthouse locations a day earlier. Not sure if this means the Friday opening will be wide, platformed, or be your typical Focus dump as Universal is more interested in Super Mario Bros. and Fast X.

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I'd be stunned if Enys Man went semi-wide. It is one of the least commercial films I've seen in some time. Uncle Boonmee is the closest comparable, but that won in Cannes.

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It's Neon and they did put Infinity Pool in 1,800 theatres back in January. Also, folk horror has been the thing in horror for a while.

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Buzzfeed is subjecting us to another movie that's going to get compared to 47 Meters Down. The Black Demon has been scheduled for an April 28th bow, most likely a day-and-date dump but it could somehow be a wide release as the distributor has gone wide before and the director did Rambo: Last Blood.

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Looks like Enys Men will be at least a semi-wide release on the 31st. My local arthouse is advertising a sneak preview two days earlier.

A Thousand and One will be previewed at Alamo Drafthouse locations a day earlier. Not sure if this means the Friday opening will be wide, platformed, or be your typical Focus dump as Universal is more interested in Super Mario Bros. and Fast X.

I have no clue what the release strategy for Enys Men is, but there's no correlation between Neon doing a Wednesday preview and something getting a semi-wide/wide release right away. Triangle of Sadness got nationwide sneaks 2 days before its NYC/LA/SF opening in October and How to Blow Up a Pipeline is doing something similar on Monday ahead of its limited opening on April 7th (that one is going wide on the 14th).

As for A Thousand and One, it's going wide right away. Current theater estimate is 800.

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Magazine Dreams has been dated for an awards-season friendly release on December 8th.

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I do not understand why How to Blow Up a Pipeline is getting a big push. Who exactly is the audience for this one outside of people who still care about Vice?

And Enys Men is a bit different than Triangle of Sadness as horror is a lot of easier to sell than social satire.

As for Magazine Dreams, surprised Disney is trying to sell it for awards instead of cashing in Jonathan Majors hype and going for late summer/early fall. Also, Majors could end up getting shut out of a nomination with this move, as I believe MGM might do a campaign for his Creed III performance.

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How to Blow a Pipeline got excellent reviews at Toronto and is seemingly just as much of a thriller as it is a commentary/call for action on climate change. Will it be a mainstream hit? No, but the WOM from the preview screenings certainly isn't going to hurt it.

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I wouldn't exact say it's a commentary, being that blowing up a pipeline as a form of protest sounds like it would defeat the whole purpose of helping the environment, making it more of an idiot plot on the level of On Deadly Ground, which has basically the same premise. Maybe that's why Vice loved it so much, as they are essentially a libertarian news source.

Also, almost of every one of the movies of this type fails to work. While well-intentioned, the characters usually end up being one-dimensional and extremely unlikable. In addition, no one wants to see a movie where the good guys are domestic terrorists and the bad guys are equally terrible people. What's the point?