The Latest Date Changes 2: The New Batch

[Buscemi]

The Sony Pictures Animation title for 2020 has been pushed back a week to 12/18/2020 but it now has a title: Vivo. It will be a musical featuring eleven new songs by Lin-Manuel Miranda (combined with Moana, Hamilton, and a film/TV series project for Lionsgate, Miranda is one busy guy).

And a few new dates:
A United Kingdom 2/10/2017 (from 2/17/2017)
Step Sisters 3/31/2017 (probably a quick dump for the financially suffering Broad Green)
Amityville: The Awakening 6/30/2017 (from TBA 2017) (though listed as wide, I can't see more than 100 theatres total)
My Cousin Rachel 7/14/2017 (from 5/5/2017)

[Buscemi]

New Sony dates:

Cadaver 8/25/2017
He's Out There 12/1/2017 (likely arriving before the director's long-on-the-shelf Delirium)
Slenderman (coming long after the character's brief online popularity) 2/2/2018

[Buscemi]

New dates:

The Comedian 2/3/2017 (from 1/13/2017)
Collide 2/24/2017 (from 2/3/2017)
Leap! (retitling of Ballerina) 3/3/2017
Inhumans 9/1/2017 (from TBA 2019) (the first two episodes of the formerly a movie/now an ABC series will play on IMAX for two weeks)
Same Kind of Different as Me 10/20/2017 (from 2/3/2017) (Pure Flix now distributing rather than Paramount)
A Bad Moms Christmas 11/3/2017 (I don't know if this means Bad Dads will be pushed back but two Bad Moms sequels in four months is just overkill)
Bastards TBA 2017 (from 1/27/2017)

[Buscemi]

Terrence Malick's new film has a new title: Song to Song. It also has a date of 3/17/2017. Broad Green is still distributing.

[BanksIsDaFuture]

New dates:

A Bad Moms Christmas 11/3/2017 (I don't know if this means Bad Dads will be pushed back but two Bad Moms sequels in four months is just overkill)

Bastards TBA 2017 (from 1/27/2017)

Nothing's been announced on Bad Dad's since its initial announcement, so I find it hard to think it's still going. Either way, it's definitely not making its July date.

And WTF WB? What's so wrong with Bastards that they don't want anyone to see it?

[Buscemi]

I think it's about Ed Helms and Owen Wilson not being box office draws anymore (okay, Helms never was). Also, it's a studio film from a first-time director and those can be often iffy.

It likely shows up on Labor Day now, to get massacred by Inhumans in ten times the theatres.

In other news, A24 has scheduled The Lovers for a May 5th limited debut. This should be strong counter-programing in the big cities against Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2.

And some Sony dates:
13 Minutes (more or less Downfall 2, with the same director and similar themes) 3/17/2017
Norman (Richard Gere drama) 4/14/2017
Paris Can Wait (drama from Francis Ford Coppola's wife) 5/12/2017
Maudie (Ethan Hawke/Sally Hawkins drama) 6/16/2017

[Shrykespeare]

And it looks like Daniel Blake has been pulled at the last minute.

So EVERYONE will have to replace it.

Neener neener neener.

[numbersix]

What the hell? Pulled the day it was due to be released??? Not even Weinstein would do that.

[Buscemi]

This just in: STX will now release all EuropaCorp titles. So far, the only date change is that Renegades has been slotted on 9/1/2017. I also expect Bad Dads to be pushed to make way for Valerian's large marketing campaign.

On the other hand, Weinstein has dropped Wind River. Either Weinstein doesn't have the money to release it or it's not very good (I can see Lionsgate picking this one up, either releasing through Roadside Attractions or Lionsgate Premiere).

And A24 has picked up the reteaming of the cast and director of Ain't Them Bodies Saints, A Ghost Story, in advance of Sundance. I expect it to perform about as well as that film did (I could easily see this being in their AT&T/DirecTV deal). In another advance deal, Sony will release Luca Guadagnino's Call Me by Your Name (a romantic drama with Armie Hammer co-scripted by James Ivory).

And a few more new dates:
My Life as a Zucchini 2/24/2017 (GKIDS must be banking on an Oscar nomination)
The Wedding Plan (Israeli comedy from the director of Fill the Void, Lionsgate distributing) 5/12/2017
The Nut Job 2: Nutty by Nature 8/18/2017 (from 5/19/2017)
Blazing Samurai TBA 2018 (from 8/4/2017)

And La La Land is getting a one week IMAX run on Friday. Yeah, I'm puzzled by that one too (Silence would have been a better choice, IMO).

Edit: the Untitled R-Rated Comedy opening on 4/20/2018 has a title: The Pact. Basically, it's a Judd Apatow-styled comedy from the creators of Harold and Kumar with Leslie Mann and John Cena starring.

[Buscemi]

New dates:

The Last Word 3/3/2017 (from 3/10/2017)
Wolves (basketball/gambling drama with Michael Shannon) 3/3/2017
T2: Trainspotting 3/17/2017 (from 3/3/2017) (looking like this one's getting dumped now like Billy Lynn's Long Halftime Walk was)
Carrie Pilby 3/31/2017
Colossal 4/7/2017 (IMG Films now renamed Neon)
Dean 4/7/2017 (looks like Lionsgate will push Wonder to the summer now)
Gifted 4/7/2017 (from 4/12/2017)
Your Name 4/7/2017
Salt and Fire 4/7/2017 (the first of two Herzog films opening in April)
Queen of the Desert TBA April 2017 (this is the second)
Megan Leavey 6/9/2017 (Bleecker Street will distribute this military drama with Kate Mara and a dog)
All Eyez on Me 6/16/2017 (Lionsgate/Summit will now release the film instead of Open Road)
Wish Upon (Ryan Phillippe couldn't get Iron Fist so he made this horror film instead) 6/30/2017
An Inconvenient Sequel (follow-up to An Inconvenient Truth, return of the Paramount Vantage label) 7/28/2017
Patient Zero TBA 2017 (from 2/17/2017)
Goosebumps 2 1/26/2018 (was anyone really clamoring for a sequel to this?)

And Moana will be getting a 2,000 theatre relaunch on January 27th with a Frozen-style sing-a-long edition. I wonder if Universal might do the same with Sing (even though most of those songs are already well-known to begin with).

More Sundance acquisitions: Netflix and Vertical will release Berlin Syndrome together. Distribution will be similar to Under the Shadow, with a small theatrical window in the Summer followed by a Netflix premiere (most likely one to two weeks after). Meanwhile, eOne and Netflix have jointly picked up Fun Mom Dinner (with eOne on board, this seems to suggest the film is not very good).

[transformers2]

Free Fire just got bumped to April 21st. Smart move by A24, it would've gotten cannibalized on March 17th.

[Buscemi]

Free Fire will flop at any date. This is the kind of film that shouldn't be going wide but is as A24's business decisions often seem to be based around blindfolds and dart boards.

And outside of Beauty and the Beast, late March doesn't look that great. Power Rangers and Ghost in the Shell look like bombs, Life looks like a cheap knockoff of Alien, The Boss Baby looks to be one of the year's worst reviewed films (it reminds me of an animated Baby Geniuses), The Zookeeper's Wife seems like a sleeper until you hear Jessica Chastain's attempt at a Polish accent (what was wrong with actually casting a European actress?), and is there any interest in CHiPs?

Warner Bros. should have kept King Arthur in March. At least that would have made some money.

[transformers2]

I don't expect Free Fire to do well either, but it's bound to do better in the relatively-barren climate of late-April than it would've have in the crowded mid-to-late March frame.

[Buscemi]

Some more Sundance deals:

The Big Sick: Amazon (distribution partner to be determined, best guess is Lionsgate based on their relationships with Amazon and Showalter)
The Hero: The Orchard
Ingrid Goes West: Neon
Novitate: Sony

Apparently, The Yellow Birds will be self-distributed by the Cinelou label with Warner Bros. handling some international rights.

Kind of surprised Bleecker Street passed on The Hero (I think they may pick up The Polka King later though, as they have a first look deal with the producers). I'm not sure about the film's quality (with a cast that good and a promising director, it can't disappoint) but The Orchard just seems to dump films (with the exception of Hunt for the Wilderpeople). And Ingrid Goes West looks like another flop for Aubrey Plaza (Drafthouse/Neon has never had a film make money and I don't think Colossal will change that).

Notable titles without distributors yet (or I couldn't find them) include Mudbound (which was expected to start a bidding war), Landline (I think STX will make a deal for this one, one of the producers is a higher-up there), Wind River (Lionsgate has been expected to take a chance on it after Weinstein passed) and Beatriz at Dinner (Miguel Arteta films tend to get good distribution, Sony or Fox may go after it).

And a couple new dates:
Churchill TBA June 2017 (Cohen Media Group is planning on a date timed with the anniversary of D-Day, so possibly 6/2/2017 limited)
Untitled Detroit Project 8/4/2017 (Annapurna will self-distribute Kathryn Bigelow's new film, I could see a distribution partner joining up)

Edit: Amazon picked up Landline. Meanwhile, Netflix picked up To the Bone.

[Buscemi]

New dates:

Their Finest 4/7/2017 (from 3/24/2017)
Untitled Paramount Horror Film in IMAX TBA 2017 (from 4/28/2017) (this likely never began filming)
Cadaver 2/2/2018 (from 8/25/2017) (this just began filming so the delay isn't surprising)
Slenderman 5/18/2018 (from 2/2/2018)
Amusement Park 7/13/2018 (from 3/22/2019)
The Secret Life of Pets 2 7/3/2019 (from 7/13/2018)
Minions 2 7/3/2020
Sing 2 12/25/2020 (I have to wonder what the plot of this one's going to be)

Meanwhile, it's looking like A24 and Annapurna may jointly pick up Mudbound. $15 million (and money for an Oscar campaign, I'm sensing another Birth of a Nation) is being sought for the domestic rights (A24 better hope this isn't another Equals). I wonder if this means A24 will help out with Untitled Detroit Project's release as well.

Edit: Netflix got it, pretty much killing its awards chances. And Netflix won't enter it into the Emmys.

More Sundance deals (I had to get most of these from other sites as HSX has basically turned into a political/news site):
Beach Rats: Neon
Beatriz at Dinner: Lionsgate
Brigsby Bear: Sony (a summer release is planned for this comedy that's basically a lifted premise from a Tales from the Darkside episode)
City of Ghosts: Amazon
Crown Heights (Audience Award winner): Amazon
The Little Hours: Gunpowder & Sky (a new distributor, likely because A24 and Lionsgate lost money on the director's two previous films)
Patti Cake$: Fox Searchlight (somehow, the worst sounding film of the festival got the most high profile distributor)
Roxanne Roxanne: Neon
Wind River: Weinstein (yes, they reacquired the film)

The Grand Jury Prize winner, I Don't Feel At Home in This World Anymore, was pre-sold to Netflix. They also got Burning Sands, Casting JonBenet, and The Discovery in pre-sales.