Warner Bros. and DC Films will be holding the premiere on November 13th, just four days before the movie opens in theaters, on Friday, November 17th.
The premiere date was confirmed in a contest announcement by iHeart Radio’s JAM’N 94.5 in Boston, which will be flying some lucky winners out to Los Angeles for two days, in order to attend the Justice League premiere.
This is a significant reveal, for a couple of important reasons:
1. The Justice League premiere will provide the first wave of critical reviews and reactions to the film, helping to answer the looming questions of whether DC and WB actually pulled together a quality film, after a turbulent production.
2. The date of the premiere being that close to the release date may spark some fan concern that the movie isn’t that good, and the studio is hedging its opening weekend bets by restricting the window of time for bad reviews to come out.
The latter point may seem a little cynical, but it doesn’t help things that we’re just now learning (at the time of writing this) that Warner Bros. won’t be holding a US press junket for Justice League:
No one knows where Justice League’s final theatrical cut stands right now, with Avengers director Joss Whedon presumably hard at work finishing up final post-production, after some extensive reshoots. But the film business is one where uncertainty quickly leads to doubt and stigma – two things that DC Films definitely didn’t need hanging over this project. Information by Kofi Outlaw for comicbook.com.
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Miley Cyrus, Cate Blanchett, Chris Hemsworth and more stars attended the premier of Thor: Ragnarok on October 10 in L.A. With 49 critical reviews in on Rotten Tomatoes the movie stands at 98% fresh with a Critics Consensus that reads: Exciting, funny, and above all fun, Thor: Ragnarok is a colorful cosmic adventure that sets a new standard for its franchise — and the rest of the Marvel Cinematic Universe. With that news in mind on a movie that will hit theaters November 3rd, the L.A. premiere was 22 days before the public release of the movie.
When Warner Bros. finally released the date they intend to have the special L.A. premier many questions were asked why only 4 days from the films release date, and why would Marvel films be so bold to confidently premiere the movie 3 weeks before the movies release date? My guess is that Marvel knew they have something special in the Thor movie and wanted to increase the anticipation of movie fans in it’s release. Plus they have nothing to loose in an early premiere and a lot to gain. The Thor fever will last for some time and increase the opening weekend ticket count.
As far as the strategy of Warner Bros. with the Justice league premier 10 days after the Thor movie’s release it will give some time for the excitement from Thor Ragnarok to die down and the critical review numbers to form for Justice League. If DC and WB actually pulled together a quality film then all is well and both films do as hoped at the box office and people can enjoy two good movies in November. I really think DC Entertainment learned many lessons with Batman v Superman and are trying hard to put quality in their DC Cinematic presentations and get their piece of the superhero pie in ticket sales.
Once again, Justice League will hold its LA premiere on November 13th; catch the film in theaters on November 17th.
So life goes on in the movie business and the competition is fierce but we benefit as fans of comics with studios vying for our money in ticket sales and merchandise. With Star Wars: the Last Jedi in December it looks like a great holiday season for movie fans. At Comics Talk Blog we are comic fans forever. Stay tuned for more. 🙂 Walt