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CBS.MarketWatch.com - Dueling Leo's Two DiCaprio movies to hit theaters on the same day By Russ Britt Aug. 17, 2002 HOLLYWOOD (CBS.MW) - Are you ready for Leo vs. Leo? Do you remember who Leo is? Leonardo DiCaprio, as you may remember, was the heartthrob who captured the attention of both pre- and post-pubescent girls in the all-time box office champ, 1997's "Titanic." That was his last hit, though. He's had a couple of less-than-noteworthy films since that love-among-the-drowned spectacle. DiCaprio has a good chance to change that when he shows up in Martin Scorsese's long-awaited "Gangs of New York." The crime drama hits the screens on Christmas Day, the same day as Steven Spielberg's "Catch Me If You Can" - which also stars DiCaprio. With two big-name directors - and the ever-bankable Tom Hanks co-starring in "Catch" - it appears that it's not a question of whether DiCaprio will have another hit. It's just a matter of which film will prevail, or which studio will blink first and change the date. A word of caution, though: don't hold your breath waiting for that to happen. "Right now, we are not considering moving," said Amanda Lundberg, spokeswoman for Walt Disney Co.'s (DIS: news, chart, profile) Miramax films, the distributor of "Gangs." "We really like that Dec. 25th date," said Jim Tharp, marketing chief for privately held DreamWorks SKG, which is releasing "Catch." "We think it's perfect for this movie." There seems to be little, if any, precedent for this scenario in Hollywood. Many stars have crossed their own paths at the box office, but there usually is a gap of at least a few weeks between releases. If there has been a case in which two movies starring the same actor hit screens on the same exact day, experts are hard pressed to think of it. "It's highly unusual. I don't know that I've ever seen it like that," said Paul Dergarabedian, president of box-office tracker Exhibitor Relations. DiCaprio had two films in theaters at the same time in early 1998, "Titanic" and "The Man In The Iron Mask." But the competition existed only because "Titanic" stayed surprisingly strong in theaters on its way to a staggering $600 million in the U.S. The two films were released three months apart. The path leading to this standoff got started a year ago, when Miramax decided to push back the release on "Gangs." The film, which depicts street life in mid-1800s New York, was supposed to debut last Christmas. Lundberg says that Miramax Co-Chairman Harvey Weinstein has acknowledged that he tried to push the film into theaters too quickly. A meticulous director, Scorsese needed more time to refine the film. "The movie wasn't ready," Lundberg said. "It was a really unrealistic release date." So the "Gangs" release date was pushed back to July 12. Trouble was, DreamWorks had another crime drama coming out that same day, "Road To Perdition," also starring Hanks. "Road" originally was scheduled for release in January but DreamWorks decided to put that off until a later date, when it would remain fresh in the minds of Academy voters. As luck would have it, notice went out that it was coming out July 12 around the same time Miramax put out word on its "Gangs" release date. So Miramax had to juggle its schedule again. And then DreamWorks decided on March 28 that it would release "Catch" Dec. 25, moving it back a few days from the original Dec. 21 release date. Not that it was obligated to tell anyone, but how public DreamWorks made its announcement is open to question. Tharp says the company told box-office trackers at the time. "I don't know how they (Miramax) couldn't have known," he said. Lundberg says, however, that DreamWorks told Exhibitor Relations, but Miramax gets its release updates from the competing Nielsen/EDI service. "We actually didn't know they were there," she said. Word didn't filter through to Miramax until April 5, when it appeared in Variety, Lundberg says. That was the day after Weinstein decided to push back the release date on "Gangs" to Dec. 25. Is it a simple misunderstanding, or just another example of Weinstein going mano a mano again with DreamWorks principal Jeffrey Katzenberg? Katzenberg has been accused of staging more than a few showdowns with his former company, Disney, throughout the years. Katzenberg left the company in a bitter dispute in 1994 to start DreamWorks with Spielberg and record mogul David Geffen. Not long after, Katzenberg started putting out films that went head-to-head with Disney releases. First there was "Deep Impact," a film about a comet headed for Earth that was released in May 1998. Two months later, "Armageddon," a film about an asteroid's collision course with Earth was released. In October of that year, DreamWorks came out with the computer-animated film, "Antz." A month later, Disney released a similar movie, "A Bug's Life." In each instance, Disney scored more at the box office but DreamWorks undoubtedly cut into the films' potential. Since then, DreamWorks has been facing off against Miramax, an independently run unit of Disney, around awards season. The two squared off in 1999 in a controversial battle between Miramax's "Shakespeare In Love" and DreamWorks' "Saving Private Ryan." "Shakespeare" won the best picture Oscar in a squeaker. Since then, however, DreamWorks has either distributed or had a hand in the best pictures of the last three years - "American Beauty," "Gladiator" and "A Beautiful Mind." Miramax, meanwhile, has been a perennial also-ran with such films as "The Cider House Rules," "Chocolat" and "In The Bedroom." How will the Leo vs. Leo drama play out? For starters, there will be a lot of demand for DiCaprio's time prior to the films' release. Perhaps too much time, says Gregg Kilday, film editor for the Hollywood Reporter. "To some extent, it dilutes whatever publicity effort DreamWorks or Miramax can call upon DiCaprio to provide," Kilday said. Based on recent track records, it appears DreamWorks has the upper hand once the films are released. While Spielberg hasn't enjoyed blockbuster results with his last two films, "Minority Report" and "A.I.: Artificial Intelligence," he has seen solid results. "Catch" has a trump in Hanks, too. Along with Tom Cruise and Julia Roberts, Hanks is one of the few stars who can carry a film just by showing up in the movie. With "Gangs," Miramax faces an uphill battle. There are no stars in the film as bankable as Hanks. And Scorsese, one of the most revered directors in Hollywood, never has been considered a maker of blockbuster films. His last widely released film, "Bringing Out The Dead," came out in 1999 and fared poorly at the box office. Studio officials say that audiences might be discriminating enough to make the conflict irrelevant. The two films are of a different genre. They even say it could pose an advantage. "Anything is a weird idea until it works," said Miramax's Lundberg. "This could be great for both movies. This could show how big a star Leo is." All this may not matter if DiCaprio's luster has dulled too much since "Titanic." The actor tried to avoid being typecast in more roles like "Titanic" and thus his only major release in the last four years has been 2000's "The Beach," said the Hollywood Reporter's Kilday. "It's an open question how much of a fan base he brings to either movie," he said. Russ Britt is the Los Angeles Bureau Chief for CBS.MarketWatch.com. |