New Release Dates: ‘Man from U.N.C.L.E.’, ‘American Sniper’ & More

[AsAp]

More and more of the major Hollywood studios have now either finalized their movie release slate or are actively in the process of doing so, where it concerns Summer 2015 – a competitive release frame that will see new installments in such franchises as The Avengers, Jurassic Park, and Terminator arrive on the scene.

Case in point, Warner Bros. has decided to move The Man from U.N.C.L.E. â€“ a modern film reboot of the 1960s TV series that was directed by Guy Ritchie (Sherlock Holmes) and stars Henry Cavill (Man of Steel) and Armie Hammer (The Lone Ranger). The secret agent action/thriller has been shifted from January 2015 to August 14th of the same year, where it will face the N.W.A. biopic Straight Outta Compton. Does this move suggest that WB is more or less confident about Man from U.N.C.L.E.‘s financial prospects? You decide.

 

Man from U.N.C.L.E. is currently poised to serve as WB’s sole new tentpole release for August 2015, as the studio has also gone and moved director Ericson Core’s Point Break remake up a week, to a July 31st, 2015 theatrical debut. The latter film – starring Luke Bracey (G.I. Joe: Retaliation) and Ã‰dgar Ramírez (Deliver Us From Evil) in roles originated by Keanu Reeves and Patrick Swayze – was previously set to face-off against Ubisoft’s Assassin’s Creed movie during its opening weekend. Point Break 2.0 ought to benefit from the move, box office-wise, as its biggest competition is now the Sacha Baron Cohen action/comedy Grimsby.

WB has settled on the launch pad for director Clint Eastwood’s American Sniper â€“ a film about the late Navy SEAL Chris Kyle (who is portrayed by Bradley Cooper in the movie). The prestigious true-story subject matter/director combo makes American Sniper a potential awards season contender; WB executives clearly agree and have set the film to begin an Oscar-qualifying run on Christmas Day 2014, before it goes wide on January 16th in 2015. That strategy mimics what Universal did last year with Lone Survivor â€“ another dramatic feature inspired by real-life Navy SEALs. (The latter didn’t clean up at the Oscars, but did just fine critically and financially).

American Sniper will arrive on the same day as two other true-story dramatic features – director Angelina Jolie’s Louis Zamperini biopic Unbroken and director Ava DuVernay’s Martin Luther King, Jr. memoir Selma â€“ that are already part of the next awards season conversation. David Ayer’s WWII thriller Fury (costarring Brad Pitt), by comparison, is less of a shoo-in to generate Oscar buzz, but if it does then it will have a head-start on the competition. Sony has bumped the film up about a month to an October 17th, 2014 release date, where it will go head to head with the horror icon re-imagining Dracula Untold and the animated feature The Book of Life.

Lastly, Sony has shifted its family-friendly offering Pixels back two months from May 25th to July 24th, 2015. The film, which boasts a, well, unique storyline about former 1980s arcade video game champions (played by such folk as Adam Sandler, Josh Gad, and Peter Dinklage) who are called upon to stop an invading force of 8-bit aliens, will now take on the Amy Schumer comedy Trainwreck and the Poltergeistremake at the box office. If nothing else, this flick sounds different than your average Sandler raunchy laughfest.

To recap:

• Fury opens in theaters on October 17th, 2014.
• American Sniper begins a limited release on December 25th, 2014, before it goes wide on January 16th, 2015.
• Pixels arrives on July 24th, 2015, followed by Point Break a week later.
• The Man from U.N.C.L.E. hits theaters on August 14th, 2015.

http://screenrant.com/man-from-uncle-american-sniper-release-dates/