Was Edge of Tomorrow deliberately released around D-Day?

Question

Seeing that the opening (and repeating and repeating...) battle of Edge of Tomorrow is in fact a final huge offensive of basically all the united forces of the free world against their biggest threat, carried out from Britain onto the occupied France using thousands of carrier vehicles, this whole operation and the imagery it was presented in naturally evoked reminiscences of D-Day 06/06/44 (and if I remember correctly, the Normandy Landings were even referenced in the movie by some old veterans talking about nowadays' soldiers in a London pub).

Seeing that the movie was released around the 6th of June 2014 (exactly from 29th of May to 6th of June in most countries, with the US release on 6th of June in particular), this seemed like quite a coincidence to me, especially since it is the 70th anniversary of the Normandy Landings. Yet, this might also have been nothing but a coincidence at all, especially since there might be people who would regard this kind of marketing usage of D-Day for a SciFi-blockbuster (even such a generally praised one as this) as inappropriate.

So my question is, are there any hints or information that the release of this movie was deliberately scheduled around D-Day for emphasizing this connection or for marketing effect or is this really just a complete coincidence?

Answer 1

You're not the first person on the web to ask this, and with good reason!

Plenty of movie reviews have drawn attention to the fact that the release date coincides with D-Day, and whilst it's probable this was factored in by its marketing department, it's unlikely or downright problematic for the film's promotional material to draw attention to this as deliberate.

To hijack a historical event which resulted in around 10,000 deaths to bolster a piece of science fiction would, if performed overtly, drown a movie in criticism before it was even released. It's unlikely that Doug Liman would wish to cause offense in what would be an incredibly crass comparison.

However...

Plenty of people have come to this conclusion all by themselves: one of the most circulated elevator pitches to be used in connection to the movie is "Groundhog D-Day". If reviewers/external sources make these comments, its unlikely to draw criticism and cries of disrespect.

June is an important release window for summer blockbusters, so it's not implausible that the films release was simply intended to capitalize on an otherwise noncompetitive window. In cadence to how terrible an idea it would be to directly court these comparisons, I'd say the release is a co-incidence. A happy, profitable co-incidence, but a co-incidence nontheless.