by Conan Simmons – July 1, 2021 – 10:03 pm
If you regularly read ON GENRE you probably saw that October 22 was becoming a crowded release date for theaters. ‘Dune’, ‘The French Dispatch’, ‘Last Night in Soho’ and ‘Jackass 4’ had all set their sights on that day.
Now, Edgar Wright’s thriller ‘Last Night in Soho’ starring Anya Taylor-Joy and Matt Smith is vacating the date in favor of October 29, Halloween weekend. If the trailer is any indication a Halloween release looks like a very good bet.
This does still leave both Denis Villeneuve’s sci-fi epic based on Frank Herbert’s book ‘Dune’ up against Wes Anderson’s star studded comedy ‘The French Dispatch’. Both films star Timothée Chalamet, one of Hollywood’s most in demand stars right now. Two such big pictures will require a considerable amount of promotion which, fortunately for Chalamet, both films feature impressive casts so he won’t have to promote the movies alone.
Zendaya, Oscar Isaac, Dave Bautista, Jason Momoa and Josh Brolin all join Chalamet in ‘Dune’ and Bill Murray, Tilda Swinton, Saoirse Ronan, Adrien Brody and Benicio Del Toro are all in ‘The French Dispatch’. Both films are anticipated to become hits.
There is still the problem of ‘Dune’ being a day-and-date release streaming on HBO Max to contend with. This could very well, as indicated by many Warner Bros. releases so far this year, hamper the box office take of the sci-fi extravaganza giving an open road for ‘The French Dispatch’ to come out on top in theaters.
It’s not out of the question that two high profile films starring the same actor would release on the same day but it does fall to scrutiny when they are the biggest competition for each other. Sure, there’s still Johnny Knoxville’s ‘Jackass 4’ which may do fine at the box office. Previous installments of that franchise have opened opposite high profile special effects hits like ‘Men in Black 2’.
So, don’t be surprised if ‘The French Dispatch’ moves to November if not sooner than October 22 where ‘Dune’ will likely stay.