Even a cinematic titan like Steven Spielberg blinks rather than go up against the franchise behemoth that is Star Wars. In a move that could have been predicted the moment Disney shifted Star Wars: Episode VIII to December 2017, Warner Bros. has moved Spielberg's Ready Player One to March of 2018 in the States.
There's also the sensible thinking that Ready Player One and Star Wars share a similar sci-fi focused audience, so a shift makes sense for both films. Ready Player One, as you may or may not know, will be adapted from Ernie Cline's novel by Zak Penn. The story follows teenager Wade Watts who likes to escape his dreary, dangerous real world by logging into Oasis, a globally networked virtual utopia where users lead idyllic alternate lives. When the game's eccentric, Steve Jobs-style billionaire creator dies, he offers up his fortune as the prize in an elaborate treasure hunt. Wade is pitted against powerful corporate foes and ruthless competitors who will do anything, in the Oasis and the real world, to reach the riches first. Olivia Cooke will be Sam, a Canadian blogger who goes by the handle Art3mis in Oasis and ends up joining forces with Wade, while Ben Mendelsohn has been cast as nefarious corporate type Nolan Sorrento.
Given that the date had been identical over here, we'd expect a similar move for the UK, staking out a spot between 2018's big sporting events, including the World Cup.