Behold the awesome power of Sony. Not only can they make Bond movies and really decent TVs, but they can also actually change time! Yes, the studio is delaying the start of 2012 by several months, throwing Olympic plans into chaos and...what's that? It's the film 2012 that is being delayed? Oh. Well, that's OK then.
Yes, Roland Emmerich's latest apocalypse was due out on July 12, but Sony has decided to move it back to November 13 and out of a busy summer season. The studio is also releasing Angels & Demons and The Taking of Pelham One Two Three this summer, as well as releasing Terminator Salvation outside the US, so they have a lot on already in the summer. The studio assures us that the film would be ready for the earlier date, so this isn't a "troubled production" sort of thing.
The new release date puts Emmerich's film up against the Guy Ritchie-directed Sherlock Holmes, with Robert Downey Jr, and Tooth Fairy, with The Rock.
As a happy side effect, the film is no longer out the week before Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince but instead the week before Twilight sequel New Moon and animated sci-fi (also with Dwayne Johnson) Planet 51.