Just after making a splash with the film’s first trailer, 20th Century Fox decided that it can’t wait longer to release Ridley Scott’s The Martian with Matt Damon and moved the film up to October. It was initially supposed to be out the day before Thanksgiving.
Back on Monday, Fox released the first trailer for the film, along with a teaser that featured Damon giving audiences a tour of the ship that takes him to Mars. The official Fox YouTube post of the trailer is already up to 8.4 million views, so there is certainly a hunger among audiences to see this movie.
With that in mind, it’s not too surprising that Fox has decided to move the film up to Oct. 2, which was originally supposed to see the release of Victor Frankenstein with Daniel Radcliffe and James McAvoy, notes Deadline. Frankenstein will now hit theaters on Nov. 25.
Clearly, the studio is hoping that The Martian is another Gravity. That film played like a summer blockbuster, despite being released in October. The Warner Bros. film grossed $55 million in its opening weekend after its Oct. 4, 2013 release.
This is actually the second time that The Martian has been moved up. It was originally supposed to be released in March 2016. Clearly, you Scott moves faster than even the studios can believe.
The move also ensures that The Martian doesn’t have to face The Hunger Games: Mockingjay - Part 2 and Pixar’s The Good Dinosaur.
screenshot from ARES: live YouTube video