It’s True: ‘Lies’ to Get a Sneak Preview Thursday

Fans awaiting the release of 20th Century Fox’s highly anticipated “True Lies” will be able to catch the film a day earlier than expected. Sneak previews of the movie, which unites the “Terminator” team of director James Cameron and superstar Arnold Schwarzenegger, will be held at 1,300 theaters nationwide on Thursday night in anticipation of its 2,345-screen opening on Friday.

While this may be good news for moviegoers, the studio’s decision to include pre-opening ticket sales into first-weekend revenues raises questions about the process of box-office accounting. But it is not without precedent. Fox did the same on 1990’s action sequel “Die Hard 2,” as did TriStar Pictures with “Terminator 2” in 1991. Warner Bros. also used the strategy on both “Batman” films.

Barry Reardon, president of distribution for Warner Bros., defends the practice. “Sneaks add a nice little bonus to the opening weekend,” he says. “They’re a great way to kick off the weekend. But not everyone shares my view, of course. There was an asterisk (indicating an added evening’s gross) added to both ‘Batman’ figures when we reported them. That asterisk has stayed with it forever.”

Fox’s senior executive vice president Tom Sherak admits that sneaking films falls into the category of “hype,” but says “that’s what this business is all about.” As part of the hoopla, Schwarzenegger--surfacing on screen for the first time since last summer’s “Last Action Hero” debacle--will put his hand and footprints in cement at noon on Thursday at Mann’s Chinese Theater. An afternoon screening of the $100-million-plus picture will follow, and those grosses will also be added to the total.

Sherak explains that since Cameron was working “seven days a week, 24 hours a day” to deliver the film, the studio wasn’t able to hold the press junket until last weekend. Sneaks, he says, were one way of fueling positive word of mouth. Because the film was not completed in time for its planned July 1 release, the studio was forced to move it back two weeks.

Mitch Goldman, president of marketing and distribution for New Line Cinema, who plans to sneak Jim Carrey’s “Mask” the night before the film’s July 28 opening, understands the reasoning.

“Holding sneaks is a great way of getting extra summer play time, particularly when you’ve got a young male audience up for going to the movies late on a summer night,” he says. “But, we won’t be wrapping that extra one-third of a day into the opening weekend figures. You can’t pretend that it’s all on Friday, when it’s not.”

Sherak good-naturedly dismisses the naysayers who charge that the calculations are unfair. “Are you comparing apples and oranges?” he asks. “If it’s your movie, it isn’t. If it’s someone else’s, it is. This isn’t about being No. 1 or 2, but about dealing with the heat of the movie. You can’t tell me that, if any other studio had a movie with this much wanna-see, they wouldn’t be doing the same thing.”