That distant rumbling you hear in the sky is the awards season campaign for Christopher Nolan‘s “Dunkirk.” The director’s WWII film has been touted as an Oscar frontrunner since it was released this summer, and Warner Bros. is eager to remind audiences (and more crucially, Oscar voters) about the epic experience of the film.
To that end, “Dunkirk” is roaring back into cinemas on December 1st, hitting 50 Imax cinemas and on 70mm screens in 34 markets — so choose which flavor you want to see it in. But that’s not all. Warner Bros. is banking on major awards season love, so much so that they’re already planning to expand “Dunkirk” into 250 cinemas on January 24th. Not coincidentally, that’s exactly one day after the Oscar nominations are announced on January 23rd. The studio is expecting big things for “Dunkirk,” and they certainly want to get any extra commercial capital they can.
It’ll be interesting to see how long Warner Bros. can hang onto those IMAX and 70mm screens next month given that “Star Wars: The Last Jedi” comes in, full throttle, a couple weeks later. But one thing is clear, they want everyone to see Nolan’s movie as he intended, particularly as Oscar talk around the picture heats up. [THR]