Paramount has just announced its decision to move G.I. Joe: Retaliation from June 29, 2012 to March 29, 2013 so it can be converted into 3-D in an attempt to gain larger international dollars, which goes to show just how global this business has gotten and how watered down our movies will increasingly become as the attempt to cater to audiences worldwide will become top priority.
With just over a month away from its planned release, domestically the film was set to go up against the likes of Magic Mike, People Like Us and Tyler Perry’s Madea’s Witness Protection, which seems perfect for a film of this sort, but with The Amazing Spider-Man releasing on Tuesday the following week, its time at the top would have been limited.
Next year it now squares off against The Host and Tyler Perry’s The Marriage Counselor with the first real competition coming on April 26, 2013 in the form of Joseph Kosinski’s Oblivion starring Tom Cruise.
Interestingly enough, the studio has chosen to use Deadline.com as its mouthpiece citing international dollars as the reason with a Paramount exec saying, “We’re going to do a conscientious 3D job because we’ve seen how it can better box office internationally… Jim Cameron did all of Titanic‘s 3D in post — and look how well that movie turned out.”
If you’re wondering how Titanic 3-D turned out, it made $57 million domestically and a massive $225.3 million internationally as of the end of April. Question is, how does a film about an American military force compare to one of the biggest cinematic successes ever?
The first G.I. Joe did make $152 million in foreign territories so there is clearly interest, How all this plays out will be interesting, but if you were looking forward to G.I. Joe 2 you’re going to have to look a little farther forward now.
