Wall Street 2 moves to September. MPAA updates, release date musical chairs...

As always, thanks to Box Office Mojo for being up-to-the-minute on this stuff. There isn't too much to report on the ratings front. As expected, Shrek Forever After has received a PG (for mild action, some rude humor and brief language) while Robin Hood has snagged a mandatory PG-13 (for violence including intense sequences of warfare, and some sexual content), which means it will likely be at least as violent as the Kevin Reynolds version that caused such an uproar over its darkness and violence back in 1991. The Amanda Seyfried romantic dramedy Letters From Juliet has received a rare (for a live-action picture) PG rating, which is for "brief rude behavior and sensual images, some language and incidental smoking". Both live-action films open on May 14th, so which is the most promising depends on which directors brought their A-game. Gary Winick helmed the shockingly good 13 Going On 30, but also the ghastly Bride Wars. Meanwhile, Ridley Scott is pretty much 50/50 these days, with a Hannibal for every Kingdom of Heaven.

On the release date front, the big news is the removal of Oliver Stone's Wall Street 2: Money Never Sleeps from its planned April 23rd release all the way back to September 24th. There is no word on what caused Fox to switch out its major spring release, but the former date just became a lot less crowded. Macgruber recently relocated as well, leaving only The Losers and The Back Up Plan. The new release date for the buzzed-about sequel leaves it opening against three other pictures, including Zack Snyder's animated epic, Legend of the Guardians. The other two competitors are movies costarring older stars who don't work nearly enough these days (Eagle of the Ninth with Donald Sutherland and You Again with Jamie Lee Curtis). The Tom Cruise/Cameron Diaz action-comedy Knight and Day has moved from July 2nd to June 25th. This puts it squarely in the path of the ensemble comedy Grown Ups (with Chris Rock, Adam Sandler, Kevin James, and the rest of the usual gang). The prior release date is now occupied only by The Last Airbender, but said Shyamalan picture will have to contend with the sure-to-be-massive Twilight Saga: Eclipse, which opens just two days prior.

The Disney animated film, Mars Needs Moms, has staked out March 11th of next year, which puts it up against whatever picture Dreamworks decides to open around that time (ala Monsters Vs. Aliens and How to Train Your Dragon). Fox has staked out December 16th, 2011 for Alvin and the Chipmunks 3D. This is the same weekend that the original film opened on back in 2007, but the sequel of course had to move back a week to leave room for Avatar. A week later (December 23rd), Stephen Spielberg will debut The Adventures of Tintin: The Secret of the Unicorn. From the looks of things, it's already appearing that November/December 2011 will be almost as crowded as the summer months.

Scott Mendelson