Clerks II was originally slated to open on August 18th (sound familiar?), but has since been moved forward to July 21st. They didn’t explicitly announce they were avoiding opening against Snakes on a Plane, but the trailer they showed at Cannes at least indicates that they’re aware of the movie. Here’s a screenshot from the end fo the trailer:
Kevin Smith? Are you out there? Did the movie get moved forward to avoid Snakes on a Plane? Here’s what he what said on his message board:
“Clerks II” is coming out EVEN EARLIER THIS SUMMER!
In a ballsy move that says “Fuck you: we’re a five million dollar flick and we’re coming out in the fucking middle of the summer, bitches!”, Weinstein Co. has upped the “Clerks II release date from August 18th to JULY 21st! The wait is now almost a month shorter, folks!
Why the move? Getting into Cannes changed everything. Since the film will have its world debut on May 26th, the Weinstein folks thought it’d make more sense to get the film out there sooner, rather than later. They found a weekend in which there wasn’t any flick that directly compete with the movie for an audience, and staked their claim.
Now, we’re opening against some pretty big flicks (”Lady in the Water”, “Monster House”), but nothing that’s appealing directly to our core audience. So while we’ll never open at number one (those two flicks alone are pretty mass-appeal movies), we stand to make a decent chunk of change and wind up somewhere in the top ten.
I gotta say, if I had had to choose, Snakes on a Plane or Clerks II, I would have went to Clerks II. Now I don’t have to choose so that’s good.