That’s a really good point! Disney isn’t going to let a re-release potentially take up screens from a new release. And Disney’s re-release strategy tends to be a limited affair that’s mostly a way to block-book screens in advance of a new movie opening.
Basically a three week run for all three movies, with Star Wars in IMAX, leading straight into all those screens just immediately becoming screens for Gatto. It’s very similar to what they did with the Revenge of the Sith re-release, which was holding a LOT of seats for the Thunderbolts release.
I could see them putting out both Empire and Jedi in Imax as well on that second weekend. Not sure how they handled it for the latter two LotR films in terms of the showtimes, but clearly they figured something out.
If they went that route, it would leave TPM and RotS as the only Star Wars films never released in Imax … unless of course they were also to put out the prequels that way in late January or early February.
Btw, apparently the new Thomas Crown Affair is currently scheduled for Imax on March 5th and Gatto isn’t. Either way, Disney’s going to want as many screens for Gatto as it can get.
I feel like there’s still a chance they just put VII-IX back out there in late March if only on a bunch of the normal screens. Even if the Imax screens are taken (Godzilla x Kong: Supernova and Resurrection of the Christ: Part One are both scheduled for Imax releases the weekend of March 26th), the Disney era Star Wars movies all got their big runs in all the various formats back during their initial releases anyway.