German theatrical distributor Senator Film has announced that it will hold over three planned winter releases until early 2002. This follows a recent Constantin Film postponement of nine of its planned 25-film line-up for 2001 to next year (Screendaily, Oct 14 2001)

The anticipated clogging up of screens with a handful of US blockbusters at the end of the year has been cited as the principal reason for the postponements - Harry Potter opens next week with at least 1,000 prints and The Lord Of The Rings follows four weeks later with a correspondingly large presence.

The Senator titles affected are: The Nicole Kidman thriller The Others, originally scheduled for December 13, is now set for release on January 10. The One has gone from an original start date of December 6 to an as-yet-unspecified opening in early 2002. The same fate has befallen Soenke Wortmann's The Hollywood Sign, originally due to open on December 27 before being shunted to January 10 and now shifted again to an unknown date later in 2002.