Film studios get their money when you go to see the film. It's a fundamentally obvious point, but that's the reason behind a fistfight of a problem that dogs every movie - picking and securing the right release date.

If you've just spent £100m on a film, you want it done and out there just as fast as is physically possible. But you can guarantee to throw your money away if you get this one decision wrong and sometimes it's better to swallow the costs than to try recouping too quickly.

And sometimes you have no choice about changing your film's release date - especially when your big gamble for the year simply isn't ready. That's what happened with "Titanic" as journalist Paula Parisi reported: "When "Titanic", vacated the July 4 [1997] weekend, it created a wake that rocked every major release through the end of the year." The result of the sudden void left by "Titanic" saw films rushed to completion to take advantage of its slot.

At the same time, "Speed 2" was looking weak so the studios pulled it forward from July 4 to June 27 "when the only competition was "Face/Off" " and consequently the biggest weekend of the year was open season for "Men in Black". As his "Independence Day" had been released on that date, star Will Smith crowed "I own Fourth of July!".

But the fuss didn't finish after July as "Titanic" had to dock sometime. "When Harrison Ford learned the studio was looking at July 25, he [made] sure his "Air Force One" steered clear of that date."

Perhaps to avoid the scurrying happening again, though, there's an increasing trend to stake your claim to a date early. The dates for each of the "Lord of the Rings" trilogy, for instance, appear on the trailer for the first one.

Got to Factory Line Part 10: Oh, Dustin Was Just Wonderful To Work With

Got to Factory Line Part 8: Coping With Your Test Scores

Factory Line Introduction
Factory Line Glossary

Sources:

"May the hype be with you - Even George Lucas is worried about the Star Wars overload", Jay Carr, Boston Globe, 16 May 1999

"How £125m epic snatched victory from the jaws of disaster", Tim Cooper, Evening Standard, 24 May 1998

"So, is the Force not with you?", Viv Thomas, Eastern Daily Press, 15 July 1999

"Summer Sneaks", Richard Natale, Los Angeles Times, 2 May 1999