As a general rule, when studios are putting together their respective release schedules they try to keep their titles as isolated as they can be. It's just simple logic: the fewer number of movies being released on a given weekend means less competition and higher chances for box office success. Which makes this recent round of release date news so strange.
Box Office Mojo is reporting that 20th Century Fox, Warner Bros. and Lionsgate have set new release dates for their films The Counselor, Grudge Match, and Ghosts, respectively, and what's strange is that the first two movies will be coming out on the same day: November 15, 2013.
Strange as it is to see two movies get the same release date in the same report, the move makes some sense when you look at it from a demographic point of view. The Counselor is a strict drama directed by Ridley Scott based on a script by Cormac McCarthy that features Michael Fassbender as a lawyer who gets in over his head in the drug business. On the other hand, Grudge Match is a Peter Segal comedy that has Slyvester Stallone and Robert De Niro living out their Rocky and Raging Bull glory days by stepping into the ring together. As the date gets closer it's possible that either Fox or WB will back off, but for not its not hard to see how the two films could co-exist in November. Then again, considering it was announced just yesterday that the "Bennedict Cumberbatch as Julian Assange" movie The Fifth Estate is also coming out on November 15th who knows what's going on.
As for Ghosts, Lionsgate has set the Kevin Greutert-directed horror flick for January 10, 2014. The project used to go by the name Jessabelle, though even the new title is only tentative. According to STYD, the movie is about a young woman who returns home to her her "father’s ruined Louisiana mansion" to recover after the death of her fiancee. While there. however, she discovers a mysterious gift from her dead mother...and a spirit that wants her dead.
