Fly Me to the Moon, the latest film to be produced in the digital 3-D format known as Real-D, was originally supposed to open August 8. Then it was delayed to August 15. And then, last Monday, the Canadian distributor suddenly announced that the film would only be opening in Toronto for now; all other Canadian cities will have to wait.
Why is this? My theory: Journey to the Center of the Earth, which was also released in Real-D way back on July 11, has turned out to be a fair bit more successful than anyone expected. And the Real-D format was very late in coming to Canada, so there are only so many screens available. And as Journey to the Center of the Earth enters its sixth week, the film is still too much of a sure thing to toss aside for some badly-reviewed insect cartoon from a studio with no box-office track record, at least not in this genre.
For what it’s worth, I have not yet seen Fly Me to the Moon for myself. The first press screening was cancelled at the last minute — so last-minute, in fact, that I had already bought my return ticket and made the trek downtown when the people at the theatre told me that there had been a problem of some sort. And I was not well on the day of the second screening. I have not yet decided whether I should make a point of seeing this, if and when it does come to Vancouver, but I might; I do like space travel, especially if it has a quasi-historical element, and I do like the 3-D format, even if the film has nothing else going for it.
AUG 26 UPDATE: The publicists just sent out a press release saying the film will “open” in Vancouver September 5. But, as Mark McLeod noted in the comments below, the film is already playing here at the CN IMAX theatre. None of the press releases sent my way have mentioned this, but that might be because this theatre specializes in educational and concert films and is sort of out of the loop when it comes to “regular” commercial releases.
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