WB has announced the new date for director Baz Luhrmann’s (“Australia”, “Moulin Rouge”) adaptation of “The Great Gatsby” is May 10. It seems odd at first, given it was going to get a Christmas day release. And, at first glance, pushing a film back to the following summer seems to take it right out of serious awards contention. Or does it?

The second weekend in May is a weird one. In fact, WB has had pretty bad luck that weekend in recent years. “House of Wax”, “Speed Racer”, “Poseidon” and even Tim Burton’s “Dark Shadows” were all WB films that flopped badly that weekend. So, it would seem to be a bad omen for this film. But, let’s not forget films like “Gladiator” and “Crash” both came out in early May and even “Moulin Rouges” had a limited release then. So, awards season contention isn’t out of the question.

With its cast, which includes Leonardo DiCaprio, Tobey Maguire, Joel Edgerton and Carey Mulligan, the film has enough star power to be a big draw at the box office. And that could actually build more momentum for its Oscar campaign. So, while delaying a film by that much can be bad (I’m talking to you Universal and “47 Ronin”), in this case, I think it might actually help the film.

Lukas Eggen can be reached at eggen.lukas@gmail.com.