Is June a better month for Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles than May?
One of my favorite/least favorite things about Hollywood today is the way the industry so sincerely believes that there are only a handful of dates a year when opening a big movie is a sure thing. If you don’t one land one of those top dates, you’re left to either gamble with one of the second tier dates or postpone until next year.
So a lot of calculation goes into the choice of a release date, some of it built on fact (holiday weeks are good for kids movies since kids are home from school), a lot of it built on paranoia (“Get us clear of every movie opening this summer! EVERY movie!”). When a movie changes its release date, it’s not a casual decision, but rather one that involved equal parts analysis and fear.
Today the mover is “Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles,” the Michael Bay produced film that once again brings the beloved TV characters to the big screen. It had been scheduled for May 16, 2o14, but now has been bumped to June 6th.
So what was the rationale here? Well, May 16th, 2014, is the date when the “Godzilla” remake is set to open; it looks like the answer is “Audiences are too similar, someone’s got to go.” On June 6th, though, there’s currently nothing scheduled. First! Now we just have to see what else shuffles over to that date as the months progress…
Jonathan Liebesman will direct. Megan Fox is in the cast in an unnamed role, though everyone thinks it’s April O’Neill. Josh Appelbaum, Andrew Nemec, Art Marcum, Matt Holloway and John Fusco–yes, that many people–wrote the script.
