In an unexpected move by Paramount Pictures, the studio has decided to delay the opening of its summer film “G.I. Joe Retaliation,” the sequel to its 2009 film “G.I. Joe: The Rise of Cobra,” until March 2013.
According to Paramount Pictures, the decision to delay the film until 2013 was based on the decision to convert the film to 3-D and add more scenes with star Channing Tatum, after poor reactions to the fact that Tatum’s character had been killed off early in the film.
With advertising already in theaters and toys already on store shelves, the decision to delay the film is a surprising one.
The delay raises a lot of questions, such as why spend the money to convert the film to 3-D? Or has the movie’s quality hurt its release amongst other films like “The Dark Knight Rises” and “The Amazing Spider-man”?
“With a movie like G.I. Joe you’re not expecting ‘Citizen Kane’ or ‘Casablanca.’ You’re expecting to see G.I. Joe versus Cobra blowing stuff up,” said Film
professor Lucas Ostrowski. “Ultimately though the studio is looking to make money.”
With other films competing against “G.I. Joe” for this summer’s top box office pull, such as “The Dark Knight Rises” and “The Amazing Spiderman” the decision may have been weighed more towards a very competitive summer box office. But, this is purely speculative.
The majority of this information pertaining to the delay of the film was not contained in a press release issued by Paramount Pictures, but was discovered by various news sources like MTV.com, which quoted an unnamed studio executive as saying, “We’re going to do a conscientious 3-D job, because we’ve seen how it can better box office
internationally.”
The unnamed source has also been quoted as saying, “Jim Cameron did all of ‘Titanic’s’ 3-D in post — and look how well that movie turned out.”
The decision to convert the film and reshoot some of Tatum’s scenes is a risky one. While you’ll always have the fan boy base showing up at the theater, the general audience may lose interest by the time the film is re-released.
The biggest question is whether or not the film will make enough return at the box office to break even. With the conversion to 3-D and the remarketing of the film on top of production costs and prior marketing, we’re talking about a good investment in one film.
“G.I. Joe: Retaliation” is rescheduled to hit theaters March 29, 2013.
