UPDATE: ComingSoon.net has confirmed with Paramount Pictures that the domestic release date is still May 2.
ComingSoon.net will have a full write-up of the presentations made by the various studio’s international distribution arms at ShoWest’s International Day, but some potentially interesting information was leaked by Andrew Cripps, President of Paramount Pictures International, when he announced that Iron Man, the studio’s summer kick-off and first movie in their partnership with Marvel Studios, will be released Day-and-Date internationally on April 30, two days before the domestic U.S. release.
Now most people might remember that Iron Man has long staked a claim on the release date of May 2, 2008, almost since it was announced, and it seems odd that Paramount might release the movie two days earlier in other markets, although it’s not unheard of. (Maybe this writer is misremembering but they might have done that with Mission: Impossible III a few years ago.) It’s more likely that they realized how much anticipation there’ll be for the movie and decided to try a similar strategy they did with Michael Bay’s Transformers last year, where the release date kept being moved earlier and earlier until it had screenings on Monday night, building up word-of-mouth for its first weekend. If Paramount does plan to release the movie a few days earlier, possibly with preview screenings on Wednesday or Thursday, expect that announcement to be made very soon.
After showing the teaser trailer and talking about the marketing for George Lucas and Steven Spielberg’s Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull, Cripps also told the audience of mostly international exhibitors that there would be a new trailer for the movie sometime in April, presumably with Iron Man, as if anyone who went to see that superhero movie wouldn’t know that Indy’s back! Earlier that day, Cripps wouldn’t comment when a moderator at a seminar tried getting him to confirm that the new Indy movie would premiere at this year’s Cannes Film Festival in early May.
