How long is a movie complete prior to its release date?

[Meractik]

Its Friday, the big ticket day when all the movies come out at the theaters... seems like now-a-days more so then ever you need to wait and pick the best movie to spend your hard earned cash on since they charge outrageous amounts (specially in San Diego).

It made me think about release dates for movies and how these are planned, do the actors and crew get time off after creating a movie prior to the actual release of their work at theaters nation wide? A month maybe? two-weeks? I remember hearing something around the time of Comic Con that when speaking to RDJ about avengers he slipped saying how he still had to go to the set that day to film and the movie was due to release like a week later, which made it seem like they where not finished yet.....

Anyways, this week its Taken 2 - I thought the first one was really well done but part of me also believes that they're making a sequel only because the first movie did so well, I do not believe that they originally wanted to do anymore than one movie, at least that is what it felt like from the story line...

 

[darkxshade]

2 words: post production

 

[Meractik]

Well yea, i figured that was part of the process - but im sure there are times when they do an entire scene... then while shooting another scene later no longer like the way the earlier scene was depicted, so have to backtrack and shoot again....

I highly doubt they're able to just go straight through shoot all required scenes then mesh them all together in post-production.... I bet some of the stuff during post-production gets cut and they attempt to re-do parts..

 

[Arkaign]

It varies massively. Some films get "shelved" for years before release. Some never get released. Some have a very narrow post-production window and are rushed into theatres (I'd guess the editors and PP folks have a shot at the work in progress and fill it in as the production moves along).

On average? I'd have to guess 6-9 months after the last day of shooting the film is headed off to theatres. There are countless exceptions though.

 

[Ketchup]

I always heard it was six months, but I think movies that suck got out sooner.