May 2007 is going to be the Wrestlemania of major 21st century franchises. In that one month we’re getting Shrek 3, Pirates of the Caribbean 3 and Spider-Man 3. Each of these films would be expected to be the #1 movie of the year in which they’re released, and now they’re all coming out with thirty days of each other. Wow.
Disney’s keeping Pirates to themselves, worried about burnout after everybody and their dead grandmother saw Pirates 2 – but expect them to amp up around Christmas, or soon after. Dreamworks is not going out of their way to make a big Shrek stink yet… but they have a Shrek Christmas special coming for TV this year, so expect that to get a little more strident in the coming weeks.
Sony, however, has been steadily dripping out Spider-Man promo materials, keeping the fans in something of a tizzy. Can they maintain over the next six months? It’s going to be tough, especially since their coupe de grace trailer, the one that reveals Venom and was supposed to hit in the new year, got leaked to the internet a couple of weeks ago. Still, it’s the little things, like these two new mirror image teaser posters, that will keep the awareness of Spider-Man 3 high.
And these are just the early posters. I expect a Sandman one and a Green Goblin one and a Venom one, and maybe even some romance-oriented ones.
By the way, I think that the month of May in the year 2007 is going to be legendary. Some people believe there could be a blood bath, that one of these billion dollar franchises will take the fall. I believe that there’s room enough at the theaters for all three, and that people will see all three. They may hurt the rest of the summer, and the movies of June are probably in deep shit, as each of these three will play for weeks and weeks. But when it all shakes out, each of these movies will have made a ton of money.
Spider-Man 3’s gonna be the best one, though.
(By the way, is it just me or does the city in these posters look nothing like New York? I would say that it’s LA – although maybe the golden tint in the second one is throwing me off. But seriously, that looks nothing like New York)
