Focus Features has moved up the release date for "The Dallas Buyers Club," its AIDS drama starring Matthew McConaughey, to Nov. 1.
The film had been set to open on Dec. 6. The fact-based tale is seen as a potential awards contender, and Focus believes the new date is ideal to launch a platform release. Thanksgiving is the target date for going wide.
Jared Leto and Jennifer Garner co-star in the Jean-Marc Vallee-directed film, which is based on the story of Texas electrician Ron Woodroof and his battle with the medical establishment and pharmaceutical companies after being diagnosed as HIV-positive in 1986, and his search for alternative treatments.
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The original date would have had it going up against Scott Cooper's "Out of the Furnace," starring Christian Bale, and Joel and Ethan Coen's "Inside Llewyn Davis." It shares the new date with "Enders Game" and Relativity's animated "Free Birds," but those are wide releases targeting very different audiences.
CBS Films' comedy "Last Vegas," starring Michael Douglas, Robert De Niro, Kevin Kline and Morgan Freeman, could play to a similar mature crowd. And Entertainment One on Monday said it would be releasing its biopic "Diana," starring Naomi Watts, on Nov. 1 as well.