20th Century Studio has chosen to shift gears by moving Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes out of Furiosa's way. The movie has ditched its original Memorial Day (May 24) weekend release and instead swings into theaters two weeks sooner than expected on May 10.
Now, it will go head-to-head with Amy Winehouse biopic Back to Black, Sony's Horrorscope, and an untitled movie from Angel Studios. None of those is likely to be particularly stiff competition and should pose a much smaller threat to Kingdom's chances of finding opening weekend success than George Miller's long-awaited Mad Max: Fury Road prequel.
Perhaps most importantly, Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes will enjoy a whole fourteen extra days on IMAX screens before having to give those up to Furiosa.
Disney is all too aware that these movies can make serious money at the box office as the previous trilogy earned an impressive $1.68 billion combined globally. The franchise as a whole has made more than $2.1 billion.
In the movie, director Wes Ball breathes new life into the global, epic franchise set several generations in the future following Caesar's reign, in which apes are the dominant species living harmoniously and humans have been reduced to living in the shadows.
As a new tyrannical ape leader builds his empire, one young ape undertakes a harrowing journey that will cause him to question all that he has known about the past and to make choices that will define a future for apes and humans alike.
Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes stars Owen Teague (IT), Freya Allan (The Witcher), Kevin Durand (Locke & Key), Peter Macon (Shameless), and William H. Macy (Fargo).
The screenplay is by Josh Friedman (War of the Worlds) and Rick Jaffa & Amanda Silver (Avatar: The Way of Water) and Patrick Aison (Prey), based on characters created by Rick Jaffa & Amanda Silver. Producers include Wes Ball, Joe Hartwick, Jr. (The Maze Runner), Rick Jaffa, Amanda Silver, Jason Reed (Mulan), with Peter Chernin (Planet of the Apes) and Jenno Topping (Ford v. Ferrari) serving as executive producers.
Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes, a new entry in 20th Century Studios' global, epic franchise, now opens exclusively in theaters on May 24 10, 2024.
Some new stills from the movie have also been released (via SFFGazette.com) which you can take a look at below. Several previously unseen characters receive the spotlight, as does Freya Allan's mysterious human character who we now know is called Nova.