Saga Marathon and Star Wars: The Force Awakens Release Date Rumors

The Unified Star Wars Universe

Film Marathons leading up to the newest chapter of a film series to be released have become somewhat commonplace in recent years.  So, it is not much of a surprise that we are starting to see rumors of six movie Star Wars marathons that will lead directly into the first showing of The Force Awakens.

 

 

Last month, a supposed errant tweet from AMC theaters caused a stir when it gave an early announcement of an upcoming marathon of all 6 movies.  After the fact, AMC officially denied that the tweet was made by them, insisting the capture was just a Photoshopped image. But although they disavowed the tweet, they did not say there would be no marathon.

 

Well yesterday it was brought to our attention that Fandango has a place holder page ready for a star wars marathon here. The page lists nothing but a header saying it is for 2015 Star Wars Marathon showtimes, but has no details or showings listed yet. Thanks to Lloyd Hewitt for the heads up on that one.

 

Fandango Star Wars Marathon

 

The idea that Fandango would have a page prepped for likely marathons is no surprise either, but still no confirmation or anything substantial to go on. But where there’s smoke there’s…more interesting smoke. Smoke in the form of an anonymous tip from a SWNN reader mentioning not only a marathon, but also some information on a possible release date shift:

 

I really don’t know exactly how much of this is common knowledge at this point, but I was talking to someone at customer service of an AMC Theatres, and managed to get some Force Awakens release information.

AMC is indeed hosting a marathon for all 7 films that is currently starting on December 16 at 1 AM and will be $65 a ticket. And 7PM Thursday screenings are happening (obviously).

However, the most surprising information was that earlier today, tickets were on sale at the customer service I initially talked to. But when I called my preferred AMC (which sounds really pretentious), they told me that the sale was cancelled because there was a possibility that the film might be moving to a Wednesday release to coincide with the European release. Again, take this with a massive grain of salt, but it seems like something Disney would consider doing.

I realize this is probably ultimately nothing, but I figured it was worth passing along.

 

Massive grain of salt is correct. Although pushing a blockbuster film up by a day isn’t without precedent, it would seem an odd choice for this specific release. Big film releases have been known to be pushed up by a day, especially around holiday weekends or during the summer when Thursday or Friday can act as an additional weekend day. This can help inflate opening box office numbers and can be a significant boost to a movie that faces significant competition in week 2 and expects a big week to week drop off. But Star Wars has none of these issues facing it.

 

Kids are in school and people have to work on December 16th and 17th. Those will be very slow box office days. A new Star Wars will drive attendance on any day, but it is not like these are days ripe for the plunder. And Disney does not face stiff competition in its second week, or third week for that matter. They have the release landscape essentially to themselves outside of counter-programming or Oscar bait limited releases which are unlikely to significantly eat into the totals for Star Wars.  The likely strategy for Disney here is sustained prolonged box office success over the typical lines around the block for one week success of a summer hit.

 

queues-at-starwars-in-1977

 

Disney has already likely accepted that this being a December release they will not be shattering any opening weekend records. And, Wednesday and Thursday box office receipts wouldn’t technically count towards the official opening weekend anyway. On top of all those considerations, the amount of work needed to change release marketing materials that are likely already under production would make this a costly change.

 

All that being said, it is a possibility that there is something to this. It is not without precedent. It just seems highly unlikely to make that sort of change at such a late hour. My speculative guess would be that AMC stopped selling tickets in order to wait for The Force Awakens pre-sales to start up next week so they could package the two together and drive more interest in the pricey marathon screenings.   But mountains of salt ingested, its still a very interesting bit of news, and something to keep an eye on as we approach the release date.

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38 thoughts on “Saga Marathon and Star Wars: The Force Awakens Release Date Rumors

  • October 14, 2015 at 7:34 pm
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    Saw this on my local cinema’s (Edinburgh, Scotland) website today. Tickets on sale Monday.

    • October 14, 2015 at 9:41 pm
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      Scotland at Xmas? Yes please! I needed a good excuse to visit my family’s lineage in Kirkcudbright!

      • October 15, 2015 at 2:27 am
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        LOL I don’t know if you intended this comment to be funny, but I love how you’re saying that the only reason you’d visit your family in Scotland is if a new Star Wars movie was screening there. In other words, you *need* an excuse to visit your family. I guess you aren’t big on your family? haha

        • October 20, 2015 at 12:28 am
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          No problem. To be fair, there isn’t any family left there (that I am aware of). We would be going to see the town they came from and the surrounding countryside 🙂

  • October 14, 2015 at 7:42 pm
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    Sounds awesome! If true, $65 is actually pretty good for all 7 films

  • October 14, 2015 at 8:32 pm
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    I’d be all over that if true.

  • October 14, 2015 at 8:34 pm
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    Speaking of precedent, has a theater ever shown a new movie 24 hours straight? It seems that despite everyone’s varied views on opening weekend performance, there is at least a segment of the SW audience that doesn’t want to wait until after the weekend to see the movie. If I owned a theater, adding showings is your only option to meet demand (if there is that kind of demand).

    • October 14, 2015 at 9:27 pm
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      I know Titanic did, but I have no idea about other movies – even the original Star Wars in the 70s. Titanic was a very strong exception; people were forcing theaters to sell out of tickets days or even weeks in advance, mainly because it was such a LONG movie and theaters could only show it so many times in a day. The Force Awakens, even at 150 minutes long (longer than any other Star Wars film), would still be far shorter than that.

      • October 14, 2015 at 9:35 pm
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        Great point. The only real difference here is that TFA’s audience is motivated to see the movie early, (and perhaps often – if the film is great) and the desire to see the film ahead of spoilers and reviews is significant. Personally, I frequent theaters with select seating. To me, I’d go to a 2:00am showing or a 4:00am showing if it was the difference between seeing it front row extreme left or at a more central location.

  • October 14, 2015 at 8:47 pm
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    If this is true, I hope they sell tickets for the individual movies as well. I’d love to see the OT in theaters!

    • October 14, 2015 at 9:18 pm
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      Same for me, I’d rather prefer an OT+TFA marathon than the complete marathon. But my guess is that it will be unlikely that they would do this. I really hope they are going to do a Star Wars marathon in the Netherlands/Belgium.

  • October 14, 2015 at 9:03 pm
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    I remember when it seemed a little off that The Force Awakens wasn’t going to be a May release, as Star Wars has traditionally been. Now everyday feels like the night before Christmas, and I wake and come to StarWarsNewsNet to see what goodies are “under the tree”. I really think it will be cool if they do marathons, as there will be people who haven’t seen the Original Trilogy on the big screen and this will give them a chance.

  • October 14, 2015 at 9:37 pm
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    “Disney has already likely accepted that this being a December release they will not be shattering any opening weekend records.” – Challenge accepted…

  • October 14, 2015 at 10:43 pm
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    Should be III-VI (or the last 25 minutes of II) since that’s where the real story starts. Everything up till then is just filler in the grand scheme of things aside from Anakin/Padme getting together and Anakin and Obi-Wan meeting. There is just so much time and plot wasted in TPM and AOTC it’s not even funny, Only in ROTS does the pace start to pick up through the OT and hopefully continues in TFA rather than spend 2 hours navel gazing like the first two prequels did.

    • October 14, 2015 at 11:13 pm
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      So show up at that point and start watching from there. (I’m serious, no snark meant).
      I could see myself (in my younger days) doing the IV, V, VI, VII marathon.

      • October 15, 2015 at 2:19 am
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        Yeah, I know what you mean. I really haven’t seen the films since I had a saga marathon in 2005 because they are so ingrained into my head now, Especially talking about them all the time on here. Just wish I could bleach I and II from my mind, One of the few benefits of Azheimer’s being so common I guess. At least until They invent that Eternal Sunshine Of The Spotless Mind technology.

    • October 14, 2015 at 11:54 pm
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      I’ve always been in the group of people that found TPM way more watchable then AOTC (not that i hate AOTC or find it un-watchable). its just that TPM had more of an impact on me as a child, where as AOTC is just filler until the clone wars. Does the Taxation of Trade Routes or the blockage of Naboo have anything to do with the events of the OT… no but Star Wars is Star Wars at least to me. But i agree with you could showed up at anytime and still get the gist of the overall story.

      However seeing any previous movie whether its the PTs or the OTs on the silver screen again would be awesome especially if the grand finale is Ep. VII.

      • October 15, 2015 at 2:25 am
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        TPM actually kind of works if you seperate it from the rest of the saga and think of it as a standalone science fiction-fantasy from the 90’s. If you look at as a kids film then it almost suceeds. AOTC was awful since it was GL trying to write a love story when he hadn’t been on a date in nearly 20 years which is why the dialogue came off so fake. The dated 00’s CG did not help either nor the fact that III did everything better.

        • October 15, 2015 at 9:32 pm
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          WE FANS can simply catagorize TFM as an Anthology film rather than a Saga film. We are now getting ‘Origin Stories’ of SW characters in the Han Solo and Boba Fett films. We can view The Phantom Menace as the ‘Origin Story’ of Anakin Skywalker. Then TFM can be seen as a stand alone movie like the 3 upcoming Anthology films. It has almost nothing to do with the Saga films’ galaxy-wide war anyway ( like Han and Boba’s upcoming movies) as it takes place 10 years before the Clone Wars.

          • October 16, 2015 at 3:43 am
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            TFM? Is your P button broke or do you have autocorrect on? Irregardless, I agree about the anthology films being seperate from the saga and I think Williams not scoring them is proof that’s what they are going for. The PT is definetly about Anakin but despite what GL’s said, The OT is really about Luke as Vader’s scenes are pretty limited. Especially in ANH.

    • October 15, 2015 at 1:37 am
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      yep I’ve always considered either the moment Anakin slays the sand people, or when the Jedi show up at geonosis, Its like Star Wars has officially started.

      • October 15, 2015 at 2:21 am
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        So many problems could have been avoided had Lucas made Anakin Luke’s age in I. Why I’m glad he is not a part of VII as he was them 13ish showing he clearly learned nothing from the PT backlash.

  • October 14, 2015 at 11:06 pm
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    I would enjoy a Star Wars marathon before The Force Awakens m/

  • October 14, 2015 at 11:11 pm
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    NICE I have Wednesday afternoons off. That would mean a DEFINITE opening day viewing for me and my family!

  • October 15, 2015 at 12:19 am
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    While the Chinese theater is a prime choice, the premiere will likely be at Westwood Village due to its capacity to accommodate overflow [two theatres adjacent to one another.] Unless they’re doing something unique like having it in deferent locations at once.

  • October 15, 2015 at 1:02 am
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    A marathon of all 7 films. So u get a ticket and watch them all at once? That’s like 20 hours of being in a theatre?! All day watching Star Wars would be cool but I don’t think I could stay awake waiting for 7 lol

    • October 15, 2015 at 5:08 am
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      Think of all the snack-dollars! I see why Disney is doing this

  • October 15, 2015 at 1:11 am
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    Phantom Menace was advertised for months as being released on May 21…and then with the last trailer it was bumped to the 19th. Whatever date shows up on the final trailer (If we get a date) will likely be the final US release date.

  • October 15, 2015 at 1:34 am
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    That’s an awesome idea ! I can sleep through the prequels then be wide awake for Eps IV V VI and VII

  • October 15, 2015 at 1:35 am
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    I would not not recommend this to anyone. Watch all 6 at your pace at home, then go see 7. I tried a marathon twice (1-6), and by the time I got to ROTJ I was so done, and not even paying attention. Total burn out by that point.

  • October 15, 2015 at 1:44 am
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    I am dying to see this movie but please keep the first showing Thursday at 7. I have school super early so I wont be able to make wednesday and I definitely want to be there opening night.

  • October 15, 2015 at 3:25 am
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    I’ m planning the “marathon” at home starting november, each week one episode until seven. 65′ Panasonic plasma and 7.1 sound– Iknw it’ s not the cinema, but t has to be enough.

  • October 15, 2015 at 4:00 am
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    just give us the ticket release date already…

  • October 15, 2015 at 8:42 am
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    When searching for Star Wars on the AMC Theatres mobile app, there was a listing for the marathon on the 17th. However, this was removed as of this evening.

  • October 15, 2015 at 3:59 pm
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    Damn it, AMC.

  • October 15, 2015 at 6:01 pm
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    I can not wait to see all 6 movies on big screen again. Oh boy I love Star Wars.

  • October 15, 2015 at 9:33 pm
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    I did a 4-5-6 marathon when the Special Editions came out. By ROTJ, my eyes just hurt. I can’t watch anything for that long of a timeframe. I would love a package that shows 1 movie/day leading up to 7. That I would pay money for. 14 straight hours of movie watching is painful, even if it is Star Wars.

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