RELEASE DATES:
USA - May 9th 1997, UK - June 13th 1997
Australia - May 15th 1997, France - May 7th 1997
Germany - Augst 28th 1997, Hong Kong - May 22nd 1997
Japan - Sept. 13th 1997, Singapore - May 15th 1997
Spain - May 30th 1997, Sweden - August 22nd 1997

TRAILERS:

Clip	File Type	Length	Size	Description
	MOV	1:15 min	6.0Mb	Full Trailer

REVIEWS:
Garth Franklin, Dark Horizons, Movie Magazine International
Entertainment Weekly, People Weekly
Box Office Magazine, eye WEEKLY
Mr. Showbiz, Roger Ebert, Chicago Sun-Times

LINKS: Official Site, Marc's 5th Element Page,
Sean Cier's Page, Mathieu Poulins' 5th Site

NEWS AND NOTES:

- 27th June -
After three impressive weeks of profits, the film's gross shrank considerably. The expected total domestic gross should be a decent $60 million, which is a disappointing figure for an $80 million production. However overseas profits are very strong and will compensate.

- 21st May -
Thanks to a mass advertising campaign and a wet-weather weekend, the film opened to a very strong $1.7 million in Australia this weekend. (eg. Good Opening = $1.2 million). This in fact the best non-holiday weekend opening since 'Star Trek: First Contact' back in November last year.

- 16th May -
The Fifth Element opened with an impressive, yet unspectacular $17.2 million. I received several E-Mails from regular visitors to this site who went and saw the film. All said they loved it, and most claimed their friends didn't like it. Am I attracting the sci-fi fans to this site or what?. Most critics ripped into the film and wrote it off as visually interesting but storywise junk. The E-Maillers found a lot of comedy in the film, yet the noise level of a half-packed theatre I saw the film in barely raised above the occassional giggle (mainly for DJ Ruby Rhod).

- 9th May -
The film premiered strongly in Cannes. Daily Variety delivered a scalding review but Bruce Willis just shrugged it off. The film opens today in the US so let's just see how well it does on the weekend. Expect my review this time, next week.

- 5th May -
People are getting confused over the Australian release date. What is there to be confused about? Every poster, commercial, web site, magazine and newspaper in the last week has confirmed the May 15th release date and it ain't gonna change boys and girls. Meanwhile there remains only 2 days till the film premiere at Cannes and most of the cast is expected to show up. Also the trailers above have been enhanced.

- 3rd May -
Some interesting facts about the film:

* The grumpy slug-like Mangalores are in fact servants of Zorg
* The test audiences went wild over this movie. Should be good.

- 20th April -
Commercials confirm the films US release to be May 9th.

- 8th April -
Overseas release dates are being announced. Confirmed releases in France on May 7th, Australia on May 15th and a unconfirmed one of June 13th for the UK.

- 30th March -
Test screenings have confirmed a lot of rumours, and discredited others. Jean Reno is NOT in the film, Luke Perry plays a 1914 egyptologist in prologue scenes, and almost all the FX are completed. Thanks to Marc's page for the info. Further plot details above.

- 22nd March -
The release date has been moved forward to May 2nd, which is a clear weekend ("Deep Rising" and "The Flood" were supposed to be released on that day but both are delayed till 1998). The film definently has a PG-13 rating for the amount of violence and a bit of nudity.

- 9th March -
A new trailer for 'The Fifth Element' aired on both 'Entertainment Tonight' and TNT's 'ShoWest Awards'. It just makes the film look even weider. Our favourite scene involves Willis' cab driving alongside a building, and the camera pans to a wall of flying police cars making a barricade. There are various scenes from the Superbowl commercial, a lot of shots of a woman with red hair (unsure if it's Brosh or Jovovich), and a lot of people firing rocket launchers. A Quicktime trailer should be available soon. Also, there is speculation that the release date will be moved up by a week to May 2nd, but nothing is yet confirmed.

- 13th February -
A better quality copy of the Superbowl ad is now available in AVI format on this site. Download it if you like.

- 30th January -
An amazing commercial was shown during Superbowl XXXI, below is a description of some scenes:

* A huge cityscape full of flying cars that are zipping everywhere.
* Shot of a meteor-type object hitting the atmosphere. It's black and bits are braking off in it's wake.
* Uniformed people, some with headsets attached to them.
* Willis flying his cab on the wrong side of the airways and just missus a big train-like thing.
* People firing guns, various explosions.
* A balcony explodes while somebody dives off of it.
* Countdown from 5-1. Intermixed shots of women and female aliens in tight clothing and more meteor shots.
* Gary Oldman saying 'Oh God'.
* An explosion of a planet.

- 10th January -
This is one of the most secretive film projects ever. Details about it are extremely hard to get. This film supposedly contains the most influential FX style since 'Blade Runner'. It is based on a French story.