The Problems With Marketing: A 'Wall Street' Cover-Up

By Deborah Schoeneman Posted Mar 22nd 2010 03:00PM

On March 10, The Hollywood Reporter broke the news that the much-hyped sequel to Oliver Stone's hit 1987 film 'Wall Street' -- 'Wall Street: Money Never Sleeps' -- was being bumped from April 23 to Sept. 24.

The industry buzz was that the studio, Fox, wanted the film to have a fancy gala debut at the Cannes Film Festival, which would mean a worldwide launch. Plus, the summer schedule is complicated by the World Cup, which people apparently watch instead of going to the movies. Of course, there's rumors that Fox decided to push the release date after seeing the film, which could mean it's not so hot; but then again, Paramount made a similar decision to push the release of 'Shutter Island,' and it resulted in a mega box office opening.

However, there's one big problem with this plan: press. 'Wall Street' stars currently appear on the covers of multiple magazines: Shia LaBeouf graces GQ, Josh Brolin is on The New York Times Style Magazine and Michael Douglas appears on Vanity Fair.

The top magazines put the movie's stars of the covers of their April issues, out now, but people have to wait months to see the movie these stars are in, and the magazines certainly won't put them back on the covers when it actually comes out.

This problem arises because the best and biggest magazines often have the longest lead time -- that's industry lingo for the time period between when they close on a particular issue and when it actually hits newsstands. Sometimes it's a few months! This occasionally happens -- as it recently did with Kirsten Dunst, who was on the cover of Allure in December for 'All Good Things,' a movie that still hasn't come out -- but it generally doesn't affect such a wide swath of coveted covers.

"There's always a risk with long-lead publications that something will change before your issue hits newsstands, but when it comes to a cover star no longer having a movie being released in the month he or she is featured, that is extremely problematic," says the editor-in-chief of a luxury lifestyle magazine who requested anonymity. "I imagine this will also have a negative affect on the movie's numbers, since these major magazines will probably not promote this film again when it actually does get released, which could severely affect the buzz surrounding it. If it were my magazine, I would be extremely frustrated."

Tags: Josh Brolin, Michael Douglas, Shia LaBeouf, vanity fair