At this point ... what's stopping from Big Box from having doorbusters every weekend between Halloween and Thanksgiving? Why wait?
A real gimmick would be the "Guaranteed Doorbuster" -- you don't have to be one of the first 50 people in the store to get the cheapest Black Friday price. No more $89 X-Boxes, but having only 10 in stock at that price.
I don't understand why they don't try this, either. People here have been saying it doesn't matter because people already know how much they are spending on Christmas, so it doesn't matter. But that's poppycock. The earlier you can get people to buy something, the more time they have to see something else and think, "Well. I guess I could just buy one more thing."
The biggest issue I guess would be that if you get too far away from the holiday, people may not know what it is they want to buy.