Feb. 2, 2007
 
'WE ARE MARSHALL': Film Down to 640 Screens; Rumored DVD Release Date September Found on Net
 
By Tony Rutherford
Huntington News Network Writer
 
Huntington, WV (HNN) – While Huntington’s Pullman Square Marquee Cinema keeps the Herd football movie rolling on two screens, 300 other multiplexes have blown the whistle on the Warner Bros. feature.
 
(Incidentally, the “record” for number of weeks run at a Huntington theatre dates back to the pre-HBO (pay tv) and VHS/DVD days, when the original Joe Don Baker “Walking Tall” racked up about 30 or so weeks at the Camelot. The first “Star Wars” movie and “Grease” also played, if I correctly recall, from their summer opening until just prior to Thanksgiving or Christmas.)
 
As “We Are Marshall” begins its seventh week of release, the number of screens on which it unreels across the United States continues to tumble.
 
Meanwhile, an internet DVD site --- http://www.videoeta.com --- estimates that the Thundering Herd movie might not go out on DVD until September. The timing would be in keeping with the opening of college football season, but would represent a relatively long window before coming out to the home market. However, the site admittedly does not know the exact release date as it asks that they be notified when the studio determines an official date. Google rates the above site as “the best source for DVD dates.”
 
After running a search of various other DVD release sites, we found March 2007 tentative dates for several films that came out in November and December, including, “The Holiday,” “Happy Feet,” “Casino Royale, “ “Van Wilder 2,” and “The Nativity Story.”
 
Reliable sites like Box Office Mojo do not list DVD schedules beyond April 2007.
 
For now, my best advice --- see it on the silver screen. Who knows, if the DVD release has been pushed back, the studio may have another marketing plot up its sleeve. Since “We Are Marshall” came out in a crowded Christmas release period, it competed not only with a sports franchise (“Rocky Balboa”), a women’s pic (“The Holiday”) and another feel gooder (“The Pursuit of Happyness.”) And, when genre versus the same genre, the picture released the earliest tends to have better attendance.
 
Although not often, but if a studio feels a picture did not get the results it deserved, a second theatrical release might occur before going to DVD. It does not happen often, except for “awards” hype pics, but, perhaps, WB has a marketing idea that might give its well deserved and well made “We Are Marshall” another crack at multiplexes during a time frame more palatable, particularly since the audience gave it high marks during “test” and “feedback” screenings.
 
Whether a second wave release occurs or not, the movie will still find a home for a little while at discount/second run houses, such as Huntington’s Cinema Theatre.