The movie 'Masquerade' featuring Lee Byun Hun changed its premier date in Korea from September 20th to the 13th.
The change was made because of Lee's absence due to his schedule. Lee Byung Hun departed on the 10th of September for Canada to film the movie 'Red 2' in which he will be starring with Bruce Willis. Their strategy to overcome the sudden change in the main actor's schedule is to start screening the movie earlier and keep the momentum by the holiday season of 'Chuseok' which is Korea's Thanksgiving Day.
CJ Entertainment which is the investor and distributor explained, "We decide that the 13th of September is better than the 20th when we took the consideration of the marketing damage that can be caused by the absence of the main actor." They added, "the reaction from the preview and the press conference was very hot, and the atmosphere is very good now. This must be the best time to show the movie."
On the other side, since the 'Masquerade' is the most promising movie in September, other movies such as 'London Boulevard' starring Colin Farrell and Keira Knightley and 'The Rum Diary' starring Johnny Depp quickly pushed their premier dates to be a week later.