The Super Mario Bros: Significant change in movie releases you didn’t notice

• The Super Mario Bros. Movie’s Wednesday premiere is a throwback to the custom for a big-budget film.
• George Lucas announced that The Phantom Menace would make its theatrical debut on May 19.
• If this strategy for changing the release date worked for Star Wars, it would work for everyone else as well.

Recently, it was revealed that The Super Mario Bros. Movie would debut in North America two days earlier than anticipated (in addition to various other international territories). This meant that instead of premiering on Friday, April 7, the movie would suddenly debut on Wednesday, April 5.

This isn’t a significant change overall, especially for a family-friendly film that was always going to do the majority of its business on Saturday and Sunday. The Super Mario Bros. Movie’s Wednesday premiere is a throwback to the custom for big-budget film premieres, though. Wednesday used to be a common day to introduce a major tent pole release, but over the past ten years or so, that practice has diminished sufficiently to make The Super Mario Bros. Movie’s new release date stand out like a sore thumb.

But why do movies start on Fridays?

After some study, it’s unclear exactly when movies started showing on Fridays. A movie like Whoopee! Started its North American theatre run on the first Sunday of October as late as 1930. By the end of the decade, however, films like The Wizard of Oz were making their debuts on Fridays, a day that naturally makes sense for the release of new theatrical releases.

After some study, it’s unclear exactly when movies started showing on Fridays. A movie like Whoopee! started its North American theatre run on the first Sunday of October as late as 1930. By the end of the decade, however, films like The Wizard of Oz were making their debuts on Fridays, a day that naturally makes sense for the release of new theatrical releases.

The method we watch, sell, and distribute movies has evolved significantly over the years, but this Friday launchpad has mostly remained the same. After all, since the 1930s, the majority of Americans continue to only have the option to attend movies on weekends.

Even streaming services have historically followed this long-standing custom and released new original films on Fridays rather than other days of the week. Nonetheless, despite the prevalence of this method of release, movies have frequently chosen to be released at different times of the week. Sometimes it’s to take advantage of significant holidays, such as around the end of December or in November. Nonetheless, there are occasions when different elements affect movies that premiere on different days of the week, particularly on Wednesdays.

Why Did Film Releases Begin on Wednesdays?

It’s challenging for the general public to learn about the biggest opening weekends for movies that didn’t open on a Friday or to determine when this trend really took off in popularity because Box Office Mojo, as part of its October 2019 redesign, placed information like “biggest opening weekends for movies that didn’t open on a Friday” behind an expensive paywall to make more money for Amazon.

Nonetheless, a large portion of its appeal can be attributed to Star Wars, more notably Star Wars: The Phantom Menace. This inaugural Star Wars prequel did set the justification for why many studios chose to release their films two days early, even though it was far from the first blockbuster ever to debut on a Wednesday outside of a holiday weekend.

George Lucas announced that The Phantom Menace would make its theatrical debut on May 19 rather than its initial May 21 release date at the 1999 Showest convention for movie theatres (now named CinemaCon). Two months before the film’s debut, why did he change the date? He wanted to show the movie to all the Star Wars fans first before making more places for families to watch it on Saturday and Sunday.

The Phantom Menace capitalized on all the pre-release hype to have the biggest five-day opening weekend ever at the time, showing that the strategy appeared to be working pretty well. The Phantom Menace opened on Wednesday, but this didn’t seem to significantly affect its three-day opening, as it still made a solid $64.4 million from Friday to Sunday.

If this strategy for changing the release date worked for Star Wars, it would work for everyone else as well. Several blockbusters would choose Wednesday releases in the ensuing decade in an effort to, ideally, allow a large audience to witness a big blockbuster and spread positive word-of-mouth.

One of the most noteworthy examples of this pattern was Shrek 2, which made history by being the first film to debut more than $100 million without premiering on a Friday. With the release of Order of the Phoenix in July 2007, the Harry Potter saga would transition to Wednesday release dates to give its devoted fan base quicker access to new chapters.

Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen, which debuted in late June and brought in a sizable $108.9 million to close out the decade, still seems to have the highest opening weekend ever for a movie that did not release on a Friday. By receiving such significant Wednesday premieres without jeopardizing their opening weekends, studios were able to have their cake and eat it, too. The quality of life was good.

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