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May 23, 2012
 

SHOWBUZZDAILY SUMMER MOVIE SCHEDULE MUSICAL CHAIRS

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Written by: Mitch Salem
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Today Paramount announced that its upcoming sequel GI JOE:  RETALIATION won’t be opening on June 29 after all, but will instead be pushed to March 2013.  The studio would like you to know that this in no way, absolutely, positively, definitely has nothing whatsoever to do with the quality of said film, no sir or madam!  They’re just converting the movie to 3D, that’s all.  And The Hunger Games made plenty of money in March.  And did they mention that the movie looks just great?  Step away, nothing to see here.

All of this might be slightly more convincing if Paramount hadn’t already spent months and millions of dollars marketing GI Joe for its June release, including TV advertising and trailers in theatres.  Paramount’s summer line-up now consists of MADAGASCAR 3 (for which it acts as a distributor-for-hire and takes a fee) and a Katy Perry concert movie, on top of the disappointing THE DICTATOR.  But OK, if the studio says so…


Universal, desperately in need of some good boxoffice news after the disaster of BATTLESHIP, rushed in within hours to move the opening of its Seth McFarlane comedy TED up from July 13 to the newly-vacant date.  As it was, Ted was going to run into the buzzsaw of THE DARK KNIGHT RISES in its second week, and while the 2 films are in starkly different genres, Dark Knight is likely to eat everything in its path.  This way, the R-rated Ted will face the younger skewing (and probably weaker) SPIDER-MAN reboot.  The studio hurt by this move may be Warners, which had its own R-rated comedy MAGIC MIKE scheduled for June 29.  We’ll see if dominoes continue to fall.



About the Author

Mitch Salem
MITCH SALEM has worked on the business side of the entertainment industry for 20 years, as a senior business affairs executive and attorney for such companies as NBC, ABC, USA, Syfy, Bravo, and BermanBraun Productions, and before that, at the NY law firm of Weil, Gotshal & Manges. During all that, he has more or less constantly been going to the movies and watching TV, and writing about both since the 1980s. His film reviews also currently appear on screened.com and the-burg.com. In addition, he is co-writer of an episode of the television series "Felicity."