Box Office: Warner Bros.' Long History Of Unconventional Blockbuster Scheduling

WB's trend of opening films like '300,' 'Gravity' and 'It' on less-than-optimal weekends created a slew of dates now considered prime release-date real estate.

Beetlejuice, Beetlejuice’s expectations have reached such hyperbolic heights that WBD may find itself on the defense if it “only” opens as well as It Chapter Two ($89 million in September of 2019) or Joker ($96 million in October of 2019). And in a relatively shrewd “demographically-friendly” trailer debut, WBD dropped the first teaser for Jared Hess’ Minecraft movie.

The video game is “still huge with the kids,” but adding Jason Momoa and especially Jack Black (the Leonardo DiCaprio of kid-friendly biggies) makes this feature adaptation that much more likely to be a global hit. Ditto the genuinely funny tease, which A) seems to be “faithful to the game” in a way that isn’t reverently obnoxious, B) is colorful as hell, and C) offers up present tense “stars” like Emma Myers and Danielle Brooks. Opening not in the heart of the summer but on April 4, it seems to argue another huge “offseason” smash for the Warner Bros. Discovery.  

Beetlejuice, Beetlejuice is opening in the post-Labor Day weekend, which WB turned from a dead zone into their private horror launching pad with It and its $123 million domestic launch in 2017. Minecraft is debuting in the same early April launch pad that WB turned into a tentpole-safe slot, whether or not it fell on Easter weekend, with The Matrix (a $37 million Wed-Sun debut) in 1999.   

Presuming (in both cases, to varying degrees) multigenerational nostalgia and cross-pollinating IP interest for the win, it’ll be another example of how WB has, even compared to its peers, specialized in turning seemingly dead weekends into launching pads.