Re: Captain America 2: The Winter Soldier
Forbes:
Disney Should Move 'Captain America 2' To July 4th Weekend
With Pixar’s The Good Dinosaur losing its director Bob Petersen, Hollywood Reporter is uh, reporting that Disney is playing what amounts to release date musical chairs with its upcoming tentpole slate. The Good Dinosaur will open not on May 30th, 2014 but rather November 25th, 2015. Finding Dory is now opening not on November 25th, 2015 but on June 17th, 2016. And finally Disney is moving the Angelina Jolie live-action fantasy Maleficent (Sleeping Beauty told from the point-of-view of the villain) into the May 30th, 2014 slot. What this leaves in the summer 2014 schedule is a gaping hole in the now mostly vacant July 4th weekend. If only Disney had a major upcoming movie that might be appropriate for that most patriotic of holidays? Oh wait…
As some of you may know, Disney has slotted April 4th, 2014 as the release date for Marvel’s Captain America: The Winter Soldier. And while we may debate the wisdom of opening what would otherwise be a major tent pole item in early April, we can at least presume that Disney was trying something akin to Universal opening Fast & Furious in the beginning of April of 2009, which resulted in a $72 million opening weekend for the big fish in a small pond. But now that the Independence Day weekend is open (and kudos for Disney/Pixar for being willing to delay a Pixar movie 18 months to get it right), Disney has no more excuses. Captain America: The Winter Soldier really should be the big franchise picture for this coming July 4th weekend.
Paramount may-well have wanted to open the first Captain America film over that weekend in 2011, but that slot was already promised to Michael Bay for Transformers: Dark of the Moon and at the time Transformers was (and arguably still is) a bigger franchise than the Chris Evans-as-Steve Rogers adventures. But this year, Disney has a left a big hole in the summer 2014 schedule, one uniquely fit to be filled by another Disney picture that otherwise was slotted for Spring. Now there is indeed a risk in opening a major Marvel film just a month before the arguably riskier and more challenging Guardians of the Galaxy, but the marketing coup of actually debuting a Captain America film on what amounts to America’ s birthday can frankly not be scoffed at no matter what other obstacles it may present.
Of the current Marvel franchises, Captain America is arguably in the weakest position to break out, which is likely why Disney slotted the film for the lower-profile April date in the first place. Captain America may have been (in my opinion) the best of the pre-Avengers Marvel Studios films, but it was among the lower-grossing, with a solid-but-unspectacular $368m on a $140m budget. However excited I may be for a 1970′s-style conspiracy thriller that everyone claims The Winter Soldier most resembles (they even cast Robert Redford), the film doesn’t have the legions of Tumblr-fueled legions of heterosexual females and homosexual males that obsess over their prurient interest in Chris Hemsworth and/or Tom Hiddleston and it has an overall less rabid-fan base. And Steve Rogers’s appearance in The Avengers may have hurt as much as it helped.
Joss Whedon’s decision to cut most of Steve Rogers’s character moments out of The Avengers, with little to make up for it thematically, created a team-up film that arguably failed to give newbies a reason to care about Steve Rogers had they not already seen the first film. Avengers almost qualifies as a Thor sequel with its emphasis on Loki and Thor while offering a character arc for Tony Stark and showy moments for Bruce Banner BANR -0.52%. Intentional or not, Steve Rogers came off as the weakest of the main heroes (his big heroics in the second act action beat basically amounted to hanging on for dear life and turning a switch), which will not help the box office for The Winter Soldier among general audiences who started their Marvel adventures with The Avengers or confined their solo films to Iron Man prior to May 2012. But it’s a theoretical weakness that can be overcome with smart scheduling. Pixar’s behind-the-scenes “troubles” has given Disney a golden opportunity.
So yes, I say that Disney should go for it and reschedule Captain America: The Winter Soldier over July 4th weekend, on Wednesday July 2nd to be exact. It will be the best way to overcome the relative disadvantage of a comparatively less intense fanbase and comparatively less established character, as well as an easy way to produce countless bits of free advertising in the run-up to its patriotic release date. it will also provide a last-minute shot-in-the-arm to the marketing campaign for Guardians of the Galaxy, although Disney can always just move that one to the April 4th slot as a pure switch. Being the consensus choice over a holiday weekend is a huge advantage, and what more appropriate movie for a large gathering after the BBQ than Captain America 2?
Paramount was unable to slot Captain America: The First Avenger over July 4th back in summer 2011. Disney has a chance to get it right the second time around, if they are willing to take the leap of faith. So what say you? Is Disney moving Captain America to July 4th weekend the right call, or should Disney just let some other studio (like Paramount and their Transformers: Age of Extinction now slotted for June 27th) have that prime Independence Day weekend real-estate?
From all the interviews/news, they are saying this is her introduction film and she'll have a bigger role later. I hope they are being coy and trying to keep it a secret, but I don't know. She was originally cast as the female lead from the reports, but it seems they may have changed that and made the female lead Widow instead 
