We've had Fox, Universal and Disney rearranging their release calendars. Now it's time for Warner Bros. to join the festivities with a modest bit of schedule shuffling. Ron Howard's ocean-going historical drama In The Heart Of The Sea has been shifted back from March until December, while Liam Neeson will Run All Night two months earlier than planned, occupying Howard's just-vacated weekend.
For Run All Night it seems like a winning situation. Neeson's third collaboration with director Jaume Collet-Serra (following Unknown and Non-Stop) has already started its marketing push with some stills and a trailer, and will now arrive all the sooner on the coattails of Taken 3, which has done rather well.
In The Heart Of The Sea, on the other hand, is taking a considerable gamble, since it will now open a mere week before Star Wars: The Force Awakens. Warners didn't previously have a December tentpole, which, after three years of Hobbit dominance, must have stuck in their collective craw somewhat. The thinking is clearly that there's room for an adult drama to bring in anybody that's not much interested in space adventuring.
But given that Star Wars: Episode VII is likely to engulf anything and everything in its Death Star-like orbit, Howard's adaptation of Nathaniel Philbrick's "Real Moby Dick" tome may equally find its box office entirely evaporating afer a mere seven days.
Time will tell. In The Heart Of The Sea now opens in the US on December 11, while Run All Night happens on March 13. The latter's UK release date remains May 1 at the moment, but we'll see if that changes...