It’s never a good sign when a film gets pushed back over 6 months. It’s even worse when a studio like Paramount pushes 3 of their upcoming 2012 films back. That seems to be the case, as the mountainous studio has pushed back 3 of its releases. One of these releases is the upcoming 3D epic Hansel & Gretel: Witch Hunters, starring Jeremy Renner and Gemma Arterton.
According to an interview with Deadline, a studio exec for Paramount says this is all part of the plan to push the film overseas, but when a film gets pushed from March 2 to January 11 of the following year, it’s never a good sign.
“This should really set up the international,” a studio exec explains to me. ”Jeremy Renner’s international profile should be in great shape after being in Mission: Impossible 4 now, then The Avengers in May, then The Bourne Legacy in August. As this past weekend shows, January is great play time internationally, and we haven’t done too bad domestically in January, either.”
It should be noted that January is also a dumping ground for films studios feel that won’t perform as well as a film leading up to the summer blockbuster season should. This does not bode well for the film.
Also being pushed this year (though not as much) are Eddie Murphy’s A Thousand Words which is now hitting theaters on April 20, as well as the Mark Duplass indie comedy Jeff Who Lives at Home, which will hit theaters on March 16th.
