Just completed an update to my copy of The Evil Dead. The one thing I didn't even pay attention to was the production year. Looking in the system, it seems there is a widespread discrepancy for the production year for the film, ranging from 1981 - 1983.


According to IMDB (I know... but it seems to be the most reliable place to find this information as no other site I've found has yet to break down the release dates as well!)
October 15th 1981 - Premiere, Detroit Michigan
March 31st 1982 - American Film Market
April 15th 1983 - Opened wide in the U.S.?
(April 22nd 1983 - Opened wide in Canada, and it's not like release dates often vary across that imaginary line when we're talking wide releases).

Anyone know which year, for sure, should be entered as the production year? Or anyone know of any other sites that break it down more completely? There's not even a fairly even split for the production year in the system. There's a bunch of profiles that each have the three separate years as their production years.

Any help would be muchly appreciated!

Thanks for the opinion VirusPil!

Any other opinions on this one (or in other words... shameless bump as I'm entirely not sure what the Production Year actually should be? I mean, we get seven paged threads on parsing of names, I was hoping a production year debate could spark AT LEAST five pages...  ).

Quoting Forget_the_Rest:

Quote:
IMHO we need an official view on premieres/film festivals/etc...

Some people say it has to be a (general) public release but that isn't required -

Yeah, I've always, always thought of The Evil Dead as a 1981 release. From the time I really started to get into horror movies (about 16-17 years ago), until today. Yesterday when I saw the Production Year, and decided to check the rest of the dates, I was totally surprised to see such a wide variance between the three years. Of course after checking IMDB and realizing that it effectively had three different release dates (which I didn't know of until now), I see the confusion, especially with a lack of clarity in regards to that specific field.

Quoting Merrik:

Quote:
Thanks for the opinion VirusPil!
...

It's just my opinion.
As Forget_the_Rest wrote, we need an official view from Invelos to such cases. I also can understand both opinions.

I can't find the site, but I remember, I was reading, that the premiere was just for the film makers, friends and other chosen persons.
That's why I go with 1982, because in this year it was released according to imdb on festivals and cinema (public).

Another reason why I'm using copyright years in general And why I asked for two years fields in the past (copyright & general theatrical release) along with proper rules for them.

I had a similar discussion a few weeks ago with someone, and he mailed me the same screenshot as F_t_R just posted. Theatrical release year is not always the same as the production year. And sometimes independent films are shopped around on trademarkets and festivals for years, before being picked up for general release.

This is a tough one. I've made a list of current credits of Bruce Campbell (it's safe to say he's listed in all Evil Dead profiles  ). All titles are based on the original title.

The Evil Dead - 1981 - 15 profiles
Evil Dead - 1981 - 4 profiles
The Evil Dead - 1982 - 24 profiles
Evil Dead - 1982 - 3 profiles
The Evil Dead - 1983 - 4 profiles
The Evil Dead - The Book of the Dead - 1982 - 1 profile. This is a wrong locality, so I flagged it for deletion.
Evil Dead : The Book of the Dead (original title needs to be adjusted) - 1982 - 2 profiles (1 is a wrong locality)
The Evil Dead: Original 4:3 Unmatted Version - 1986 - 1 profile. This one's definitely wrong.

So the score per year (at the moment) is:
1981: 19
1982: 30
1983: 4
1986: 1

Quoting VirusPil:

Quote:
http://www.bookofthedead.ws/website/the_evil_dead_production.html

Look under post production.

Quote:
The movie finally opened in New York on April 15, of 1983, premièring at the Rivoli and other houses, and playing at the Wellmont in Montclair, New Jersey.

Yet it also says this (bolding mine):

Quote:
With the film complete, a world première was organised at the 1100 seater Redford Theatre, Michigan on the 15 October 1981, and it was a big success with around 1000 in attendance. The real test was a paying audience, so they screened it at Michigan State University. The reaction was even greater, the rowdier the audience, the better.

Debatable, yep, but if it played in two theaters in 1981, one of which was a paid attendance, my vote is for 1981.

Quoting Astrakan:

Quote:
Quoting Merrik:

Quote:
...I'm entirely not sure what the Production Year actually should be? I mean, we get seven paged threads on parsing of names, I was hoping a production year debate could spark AT LEAST five pages...

11 pages: http://www.invelos.com/Forums.aspx?task=viewtopic&topicID=421436
7 pages: http://www.invelos.com/Forums.aspx?task=viewtopic&topicID=200069
5 pages, with poll: http://www.invelos.com/Forums.aspx?task=viewtopic&topicID=156334
4 pages: http://www.invelos.com/Forums.aspx?task=viewtopic&topicID=347827
3 pages, with poll: http://www.invelos.com/Forums.aspx?task=viewtopic&topicID=219532
2 pages, with poll: http://www.invelos.com/Forums.aspx?task=viewtopic&topicID=277181

And no, this is not a dig. I found these when I was participating in one of those and was looking for what others had said in the past.

KM

See, now this is more like it!    And don't worry, I didn't take it as a dig!

VirusPil, I think the profile you're looking for is EAN 8716777039014. The contribution notes clearly state that in the commentary at 0:13:28 that the film was released in 1983. If the copyright is listed as being 1982, and the commentary from the people involved say 1983, I'm inclined to go with 1983.

It wouldn't be of my personal opinion, because that's a different animal all together (I would agree with Alien and say that if it had a release in 1981 that was open to 1000 members of the public, that 1981 was the release), but for the purposes of THIS program, I would say the year should be 1983. I'd have to check my own copy to see if it includes that same commentary.