Lionsgate films have announced that they’re pushing back the release date for Punisher War Zone back to December 5. The movie has been through some hard times, having lost Thomas Jane as the lead, and was in the center of controversy wen one of the writers exercised his right to have his name removed from the script.
The new date may be a good thing as it would have rounded out the summer with the previous release of September 12, but would also have likely wound up ignored as the time frame is where many studios drop fodder. With the release in early December, the film will not have the numbers of students out of classes for Christmas break, but it will be in theaters during that period.
I’d take a guess that they idea is to catch some holiday runoff when comic and sci-fi flicks do reasonably well with young consumers. But if the film winds up with an R rating it would be unable to get those viewers. I hope that it does actually get an R for the sake of the work, but it will likely wind up a PG-13. Still, it would be nice if the film had the same grit as Garth Ennis material of late.
This is actually a very good thing. “Righteous Kill” (another revenge film) with Al Pacino AND Robert DeNiro AND the new Coen Bros flic with George Clooney AND Brad Pitt both open on 12 September.
Moving PWZ up to December shows that Lion’s Gate thinks they have something to protect. That a very good sign. A franchise is what we hope for, so it needs to do well. There isn’t usually much out in early December other than Christmas and children’s fare, so PWZ will likely hit its target audience. Punisher comic fans will all be there on opening day, and good word-of-mouth will bring in other fans.
I’m very positive about this new date.