Ghost Rider Bumped To 200712:00 AM, 16-DECEMBER-05
Ghost Rider, the Nicolas Cage supernatural action movie based on the Marvel comic of the same name, has been pushed back to President's Day weekend 2007 from its original July 14, 2006, release date, Variety reported.
Sony bumped the $120 million movie to Feb. 16, 2007, to make way for its other 28 titles opening next year from its five divisions, which include Columbia, Screen Gems, TriStar, Revolution and MGM, the trade paper reported.
Sony's other summer '06 SF&F movies include Columbia's The Da Vinci Code (May 19), Columbia/Revolution's Click (June 23), Sony Pictures Animation's Monster House (July 21), and Revolution's Tim Allen fantasy movie Zoom (Aug. 11).
The change means that Marvel Studios must now undo a carefully laid out plan of ancillary tie-in deals, the trade paper reported.
The February date allows some buffer space between Ghost Rider and another Marvel franchise film, Spider-Man 3, which Sony is releasing three months later in May.
Sony found the February date a better launching pad than the fall, which has become a haven for horror and family dramas, and when SPE will release such films as its sequel to The Grudge.
Moreover, Ghost Rider no longer has to worry about opening in such close proximity to the June 30 bow of Superman Returns and the July 5 bow of Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest.
Sorry news for me, since I'm a huge fan of the 70s/80s comic. Oh well, at least we know ahead of time to wait for the DVD.
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