Movie studio executives realize that movies must open in certain time periods to be successful. Summer is one of those time periods. Suppose that you are a manager at Warner Brothers (WB), which is hoping for a blockbuster with the sequel to the 2014 hit The Lego Movie. Say that in February 2014, your company announced that the film would open on May 18, 2018, but two years later, in February 2016, the executives at Disney (Dis) announced that they planned to open a Star Wars movie

(featuring Han Solo before he joined the rebellion) on May 25, 2018. You and the other Warner Brothers managers realized that your Lego movie would probably not compete well against a new Star Wars film. In particular, you think that if you open the same weekend as the Star Wars movie your profit will be less than if you open in another weekend. So you changed the opening date of the Lego movie to February 8, 2019. Assume that the Star Wars film could also open on that date.

a. What game are you and the managers at Disney playing?

b. Explain why Disney’s managers decided to open their movie in May 2018 and your studio decided to postpone the Lego Movie sequel’s opening until February 2019. Draw a game tree with hypothetical profits as part of your answer.