Summer movie musical chairs: Ted moves to June 29th.

Universal has announced that Seth McFarlane's Ted (which my wife wants to see) will now open on June 29th, 2012 in the 'vacated' slot (by vacated, that means its also opening against Tatum's Magic Mike, Tyler Perry's Madea's Witness Protection, and People Like Us).  Oddly enough, Universal is opening Oliver Stone's Savages just a week later on July 6th.  So if Universal ends up moving Savages to July 13th, don't be too surprised.  I'm genuinely surprised that Universal didn't take the opportunity to move The Bourne Legacy from its August 3rd slot where it would be opening head-to-head with Total Recall.  Of course, considering July 13th will now have only Ice Age: Continental Drift, expect some studio to move one of their bigger movies to the now nearly-empty slot.  That leaves just six titles opening in wide release this July (The Amazing Spider-Man, Savages, Ice Age 4, The Dark Knight Rises, Step Up 4, and The Watch).  If I were Sony, I'd move the Meryl Streep/Tommy Lee Jones/Steve Carell drama Hope Springs into the July 13th slot, as it will provide solid counter-programming against both Ice Age 4 and The Dark Knight Rises and allow Sony to move Total Recall to August 10th.  August has 14 movies opening over five weeks.  I expect that number to drop by at least one while July's total increases to seven before too long. What do you think will go down with this latest round of musical chairs?  Share below.

Scott Mendelson

Money for nothing: A commercial (not artistic) defense of Paramount's decision to convert GI Joe Retaliation to 3D.

As most of you know, Paramount has announced that it is moving one of its three major summer releases, G.I. Joe: Retaliation, from June 29th, 2012 to March 29th, 2013.  The official reason for this date change is not quality issues with the film, the need for reshoots, problems with the marketing, or the desire to 'unkill Channing Tatum due to his increased visibility/profile. but purely because they want to take the extra nine months to convert the film to 3D for theatrical release.  Obviously most of the film punditry world is crying foul over this decision and as someone who was looking forward to the film I sympathize.  But putting aside the "I want to see it *now*!" and the "I hate needless and/or post-converted 3D!" arguments, it's tough in this current box office climate to argue that Paramount didn't make the right call.  Since Avatar kick-started the 3D trend 2.5 years ago, there has been a flurry of would-be tentpole films going the 3D route and an equal number of would-be blockbusters choosing to renounce the gimmick and go out as 2D only.  While we can all appreciate the filmmakers who stuck to their artistic guns in the face of box office pressure, the truth of the matter is that in today's marketplace, where a big-budget film's financial fate is often decided by overseas dollars, it's almost fiscal self-injury not to make the call.  For anywhere from $10 million to $20 million extra, you can add around 15-20% to your opening weekend grosses and around 15% to your total domestic box office, with an un-quantifiable upshot for foreign grosses.  For numbers like that, why *wouldn't* you convert your purely commercial popcorn adventure film to 3D?

Super Bowl commercial: G.I. Joe: Retaliation brings the cheese.

I liked G.I. Joe: The Rise of Cobra more than most people did, so it heartens me to say that this short 30 second spot feels more larger-than-life than the first full trailer.  Point being, I don't want a G.I. Joe movie that is 'dark, gritty, and realistic'.  Obviously having two genuine movie stars leading the pack will probably allow this picture to be taken more seriously than the last one, although it will be interesting to see how much Channing Tatum actually appears in this sequel, since he's obviously being hidden in the marketing thus far.  As I've said before, the most promising element is the fact that they are actually honoring the crazy cliffhanger from the first picture and frankly the fact that they are treating this as a sequel at all, as opposed to a 'reboot'.  Anyway, considering how much ink has been spent of late discussing the costumes for female characters in franchises like this, it is refreshing to see that Elodie Yung (Jinx) and Adrienne Palecki (Lady Jane) will be allowed to wear full outfits during their big moments.  And Faran Tahir (allegedly playing Cobra Commander) once again returns to the Paramount franchise fold, having had small roles in Iron Man and Star Trek (he's apparently a good luck charm).  Point being, this does look like the kind of big-scale fun we want out of a G.I. Joe movie, so here's hoping that Jon Chu pulls it off.  The picture opens on June 29th, 2012.  As always, we'll see...

Scott Mendelson

G.I. Joe Retaliation gets a 'realistic' trailer, for better or worse.

I'm of two minds about this one.  On one hand, there is absolutely nothing wrong with this second G.I. Joe movie being a bit different, both visually and in terms of tone, from the last picture.  So the last one was colorful and campy while this one is trying to sell itself as somewhat more serious and arguably more generic.  Fine, no harm, no foul.  On the other hand, as someone who LIKED G.I. Joe: The Rise of Cobra, this new entry feels less like 'your G.I. Joe action-figure dramas brought to life!' and more like 'A G.I. Joe movie for audiences who are probably a little too old to reasonably have an interest in a G.I. Joe movie'.  Part of the fun of the last film was seeing the characters that we all loved back in the 1980s (Baroness, Snake Eyes, Scarlett, Duke, Destro, etc) come to life in $175 million worth of candy-colored carnage (say what you want about those robo-suits, but the Paris chase is a fantastic action sequence).  This time around, it's basically like someone made an admittedly stylish-looking action picture (that ninja cliff fight is about six kinds of awesome), cast some name actors (The Rock, Bruce Willis apparently playing himself), and some relative unknowns, suited everyone up except the two returning ninjas in generic battle gear, and then slapped 'G.I. Joe' on the marquee for marketing purposes.  Will it be a 'better' movie than Sommer's initial entry?  Perhaps, at the very least it hopefully won't shoot itself in the foot during its final 20 minutes in order to neuter its major villain.  But, based on what we've seen, it feels less like a (as I know it) G.I. Joe movie than the first film.  Having said all of that, I love that they are keeping the terrific cliffhanger of the first film.  I like that the button gives Willis the joke, but Adrianne Palicki gets the comic reaction shot.  Anyway, this one drops on June 29th, 2012.  Then we'll know, which is of course about 50% of the battle.

Scott Mendelson