Prescreening vs Official Release Dates: which to use?

When a movie has already set an official release date in a country, some cinemas may arrange public screenings prior to official release. Take the movie Like Father Like Son, it premiered in Japan on Sept 17, with an official nationwide release date for Sept 28, and an official nationwide public "prescreening" period of Sept 24-27 at select cinemas. How should we reflect that in the Release Date page? At the moment, the film is simply entered as being released nationwide in Japan on Sept 24.

Similarly HK had started publicly prescreening the movie from Oct 12 onwards despite an official release date of Oct 31.

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mightyemperor

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1.9K Messages

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146.1K Points

12 years ago

I can't find any examples of this being recorded separately on IMDB and I think the national release date needs preserving.

As a test you could always add a couple of dates and using "prescreening" as an attribute and see what happens.

It might also be staff or one of the other people here will know what to do and chip in, so leave it a few days first.

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izumi_sano

5 Messages

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120 Points

Thanks, will do that!

12 years ago

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Giancarlo_Cairella

Employee

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500 Messages

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42.2K Points

12 years ago

We do not consider preview screenings (what are usually called 'sneak previews' in the US) or select advance screening dates (i.e. those events where people can go see a film a week or two before the opening, usually after picking up a screening invite in a magazine or in a store or some other form or promotion). The purpose of these screenings is to build positive word-of-mouth in advance of the film's wide release, and are sometimes held so that members of the press can watch the film for review purposes in advance of the actual opening weekend with an actual audience in attendance.

It looks like the 'pre-screenings' you describe are similar to these, in which case we would not list them as a release date.

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izumi_sano

5 Messages

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120 Points

12 years ago

Thanks! I'll submit the request to change the entry for the said movie back to the official release date, as someone had recently brought it forward to the first pre-screening day. But granted it was very confusing, as the Japan and HK 'pre-screenings' or 'advance screenings' sold the tickets publicly at the cinema box office and online as well.

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izumi_sano

Prescreening vs Official Release Dates: which to use?

mightyemperor

izumi_sano

Giancarlo_Cairella

izumi_sano

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