A couple of release date changes here, which will affect you if you're looking forward to Star Trek Beyond and/or London Has Fallen. Both will now open later than originally announced: a couple of weeks in Star Trek's case and a couple of months in the Olympus sequel's.
Star Trek Beyond, the Justin Lin-directed threequel penned by Simon Pegg, had been pegged for July 8 next year, but will now arrive on July 22. This means it'll now face competition from Ice Age: Collision Course and Guy Ritchie's King Arthur. In its previous slot it would have opened against Mike And Dave Need Wedding Dates and The Secret Life Of Pets. Have Paramount blinked first in a standoff between the Enterprise and some animated cats and dogs?
London Has Fallen, meanwhile, had already been pushed back three months to get it out of the way of Ridley Scott's The Martian, but is now moving again, from January 22 to March 4 next year. Gerard Butler would have been battling Robert De Niro's Dirty Grandpa on the earlier date, but will now fight for space against Sacha Baron Cohen's Grimsby, Disney's Zootopia, the Aaron Paul thriller Triple Nine and Tim Burton's Miss Peregrine's Home For Peculiar Children.
Olympus Has Fallen played well in March of 2013, so that's part of the thinking there. But Focus Features have also candidly admitted that the extra time will be useful for finessing London's FX. "We’re convinced that we have the potential for a successful film with London Has Fallen," says Focus' Jim Orr, "and we want to give it all the time it needs in its production and put it in the strongest possible release window.”