With the fall and early winter corridor looking fiercely competitive, Warner Bros. is changing a trio of release dates in order to best position its movies. All of them will still go day-and-date on HBO Max (for the first 31 days) with theatrical.
With MGM/United Artists Releasing’s 007 movie No Time to Die on Oct. 8, Warners will not play Legendary’s Dune in its wake, rather go on Oct. 22 with the all-star ensemble sci-fi pic based on the Frank Herbert novel. Dune will also be released in 3D and Imax. Dune is making its world premiere at the Venice Film Festival, and it will be hitting TIFF.
Instead on Oct. 1, Warners will release the Alan Taylor directed, David Chase produced and co-written Sopranos New Line feature prequel The Many Saints of Newark. Pic was most recently scheduled for Sept. 24. Many Saints is the only adult choice on Oct. 1-3 in what has recently shaped up to be a knife war between MGM/United Artists Releasing’s The Addams Family 2 and Sony’s Hotel Transylvania 4: Transformania. Sony plopped its fourthquel on Addams Family 2 date last week, and the two films are apt to cannibalize their target family audiences.
Clint Eastwood’s Cry Macho starring the legendary filmmaker star, Eduardo Minett and Dwight Yoakam will move up from Oct. 22 to Sept. 17. On its new date, Cry Macho will be up against Paramount’s Clifford the Big Red Dog and Open Road’s Gerard Butler-Frank Grillo movie Copshop.
Many Saints and Cry Macho haven’t been dated for film festivals yet, but it wouldn’t come as surprise to find them in the fall troika of Venice, TIFF and Telluride.