This Christmas movie season is extremely crowded, even by the standards of the traditionally cramped holiday, with six wide rollouts and two high-profile limited releases scheduled.
20th Century Fox has scheduled openings for three movies: “Alvin and Chipmunks: Road Chip,” David O. Russell‘s “Joy” with Jennifer Lawrence will both open widely and “The Revenant,” directed by Alejandro González Iñárritu and starring Leonardo DiCaprio and Tom Hardy, is a limited release.
The holidays are the busiest moviegoing time of the year, but this year’s likely glut of releases could lead to a struggle to secure screens and win over audiences — especially since Disney rolls out “Star Wars: The Force Awakens” on Dec. 18 and the film is expected to play strongly well into the season.
But while some studios are expected to shift one or more to their releases to a less competitive date, Fox insists it won’t be budging.
“I don’t anticipate any changes at all,” Fox distribution president Chris Aronson told TheWrap.
He noted that the studio’s fourth “Alvin and the Chipmunks” family film opens on Wednesday, Dec. 23, while the fact-based dramedy “Joy” opens wide on Christmas Day and “The Revenant” will debut in four theaters on Dec. 25 as well. “It’ll be fun,” said Aronson.
That puts the ball squarely in the court of the other studios if they want to avoid a holiday mashup.
Also scheduled to open wide on Christmas Day are Sony’s Will Smith NFL head-injury saga “Concussion”; Oliver Stone‘s take on the Wikileaks scandal “Snowden,” with stars Joseph Gordon-Levitt and Shailene Woodley from Open Road; Warner Bros.’ remake of “Point Break” starring Luke Bracey and Paramount’s comedy “Daddy’s Home” with Mark Wahlberg and Will Ferrell.
In addition, the Weinstein Company is planning a limited 70mm-only release of Quentin Tarantino‘s Western saga “Hateful Eight.”