Fox seemed to have a pretty good strategy in place for their upcoming action comedy This Means War, planning a Valentine's Day release to capitalize on date night with a movie that appeals to women with romance and to guys with big explosions and chases. But apparently even Chris Pine, Reese Witherspoon and Tom Hardy combined can't match the almighty power of a Nicholas Sparks-esque sappy romance*, and in the face of very strong tracking for the romantic drama The Vow, Fox has pulled back. Fox announced today that the Tuesday Valentine's Day screenings will be treated as "sneaks," and the film will not officially open until next Friday.
It's doubly embarrassing for the studio, since they only pushed up This Means War to a Valentine's Day release a month ago, but simply haven't seen enough interest in their movie for the gamble to seem worth it. The Vow opens this Friday and will have been in theaters for four days by the time Valentine's Day arrives, but apparently people want the pure romance of seeing Channing Tatum and Rachel McAdams fall back in love rather than the McG-inflected sass and action of This Means War. Neither movie is likely to get good reviews, but that doesn't really affect what people go for on Valentine's Day. Of course, I'm not really sure why anyone would want to put their romance to the test of something like what happens in The Vow and similar romances, where perfectly beautiful people fall in the kind of love that's tragic but in a meaningful and life-affirming way. After that, no matter what kind of dinner you go to, it's going to seem weak by comparison.
NOTE: This article has been edited to reflect that The Vow is not in fact based on a Nicholas Sparks book. We regret the error.
