Summit EntertainmentSummit Entertainment was so excited it had to tweet: "Due to overwhelming demand, THE TWILIGHT SAGA: NEW MOON soundtrack is being released this Friday!"
And we were so confused we had to ask: Hey, Summit, is there not overwhelming demand for the movie?
By your studio reasoning, shouldn't we get that early, too? What's so special about Nov. 20? What's wrong with Oct. 20? Or, hey, what about Friday?
Won't work, you say, Summit? Too soon, you say, Summit?
To which we say, are you kidding?
If you texted Robert Pattinson fans that New Moon would be opening in about 30 minutes, you'd have packed theaters in about 30 seconds.
So what's the problem?
Our inability to understand Hollywood, apparently.
We put a call into Chris Thilk of the movie-marketing blog Movie Marketing Madness. We wanted to know why, for the love of Taylor Lautner, we can put a man on the moon, and then blow it up, but we can't get New Moon in theaters till Thanksgiving time?
"It is harder to move a movie around," Thilk told us.
Harder to move than a soundtrack, that is.
"The soundtrack has probably been 98 percent locked in since August. They've known what songs are going to be on there," Thilk said. "So it's pretty easy to pull the trigger by three or four weeks."
And it's not pretty easy to pull a trigger on a movie?
Actually, no, Thilk explained. There are promotional plans to consider. There are special effects to perfect—Edward Cullen doesn't glisten without help, after all.
And that's all well and good, but we know what you're thinking: How did Summit just last year move up the release of Twilight by three weeks?
Because it made the move about three months in advance.
"If we were in August, and they said we're moving [New Moon] to early November," Thilk said, "well, that's OK."
Ever the voice of reason, Thilk said that while he didn't doubt hard-core Pattinson fans "would adjust on a dime," he doubted Summit would risk losing less plugged-in fans to release-date confusion.
Reason, however, has little to do with mania. And nothing to do with New Moon mania.
So just give us the damned movie!