Sony has announced that the highly anticipated The Green Hornet is on move, with its release date shifted from June 25th to July 9th, 2010. However the studio isn’t giving up on that date, as they’ve sifted Adam Sandler’s Grown Ups to take its place. The Sandler movie had previously been due for a March release, but Sony must reckon it has plenty of commercial appeal by moving it into a coveted mid-summer spot.
The Green Hornet move is probably the studio’s attempt not to overcrowd the box office with similar movies over next year’s July 4th Weekend and risk getting pushed out. At the moment in the US, The Twilight Saga: Eclipse is due on June 30th and The Last Airbender on July 2nd. Any film opening on June 25th would also face competition from holdovers like Toy Story 3, Footloose and The A-Team. However what was lacking on the schedule was a major, non-effects filled comedy, so Sony has filled the void with Grown Ups, probably looking for the same audience that rushed for The Hangover last month, when it was the only non-blockbuster around worth seeing.
Although the July 4th weekend is one of the most lucrative in the US, by releasing Green Hornet just afterwards, it gives the movie a clearer run at the box office. Many analysts believe that the studios have suffered this summer by releasing too many of their major summer movies too close together, and muscling each other out in the theatres, so it would appear they’re already trying to space things out next year.
The Green Hornet, which is now filming after all sorts of preproduction problems, stars a slimmed down Seth Rogen and chop-socky star Stephen Chow, under the direction of Eternal Sunshine’s Michel Gondry (who’s undoubtedly an interesting choice). Grown Ups meanwhile reunites Sandler with director Dennis Dugan (Happy Gilmore, Big Daddy), and sees five old friends reuniting for the weekend, 30 years after they al graduated from High School.