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Dr. No released in '62 and '63?


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#1 sofierce20007

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Posted 29 September 2002 - 07:25 AM

Question. I just saw the Dr. No summary and it was released in '62 in UK and '63 in US. Why didn't the US release it in '62?

#2 brendan007

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Posted 29 September 2002 - 08:42 AM

im not really sure but i always gathered its because nobody thought dr no would be a success so they didnt see the need to rush it out there straight away

#3 Red Grant

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Posted 29 September 2002 - 09:10 AM

One has to remember that release patterns for films in the sixties and up until about ten years ago were very different to what they are nowadays. They could often be months apart. Dr No was not considered to be a blockbuster film before its release in the UK so the US release was not so important to the distributor at the time. The same was true for From Russia With Love which was released much later in the US than in the UK. It was the huge success of FRWL that prompted the release patterns for Goldfinger to be changed and the rest is history.....
The opposite effect is also true - US films were not often released in the UK or Europe until their success in the States has been confirmed. JAWS for instance appeared in the UK later in 1975 whereas it has been a huge hit in the summer of that year in the States. Nowadays as trends and technologies have changed films are released almost simulataneously worldwide which results in faster revenues for the distributors but that revenue is not spread across a huge time period. Coupled with the fact that films cost so much more to make nowadays they naturally want their money back quicker. Modern blockbusters take in huge box office receipts but their cost is a large percentage of that gross. Looking at the Dr No figures - a budget of $1m against a gross of $352 is pretty good for a small British film with a relatively unknown cast.
40 years later they are still going strong but quality is naturally sacrificed for the sake of more $$$$. That's business folks!

#4 WC

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Posted 29 September 2002 - 12:25 PM

Just to add that one has to question when exactly Dr No came out in 1963 in the US. In the UK, Star Trek: Nemesis comes out in Jan 2003 whereas in the US it comes out in December 2002. The same happened for the previous film.

There isn't a great mystery as to a few months (even half a year) difference in release dates. In the Uk certain films don't come out for months after the US release, although the very major ones tend to follow about a month or two after later. Some films (eg Highlander:Endgame, Teaching Mrs Tingle et al) don't even come out in the UK at all. I suppose the only mystery is from the point of view of the Americans here on this board, because US releases generally precede UK ones or are more or less simultaneous. A long delay until the US release would therefore look unusual in this respect, but is common practice over here.

#5 cool guy

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Posted 29 September 2002 - 06:08 PM

Originally posted by Welshcat
Just to add that one has to question when exactly Dr No came out in 1963 in the US.

I belive that it came out in the US on May 8th in '63. So that's more than 6 months.