Why Sony Moved Brad Pitt’s ‘Bullet Train’ To Late July

I swear every time I get a new email from Sony about release dates, I think, if only for a moment, that Peter Rabbit: The Runaway has been delayed yet again. Anyway, Sony’s release date news from last Friday was not about Peter Rabbit 2 but about their two July 2022 releases.

Olivia Newman’s Where the Crawdads Sing, starring Daisy Edgar-Jones, will open not on July 22 but on July 15. The film, based on Delia Owens’ novel, is the kind of non-IP, non-franchise old-school “movie movie” that everyone likes to claim Hollywood never makes anymore. I’m sure those same folks will ignore it in theaters this summer only to “discover” it on Netflix, which is less of an issue since Netflix paid big bucks for Sony’s first pay-tv window for upcoming Sony features.

David Leitch’s ensemble actioner Bullet Train moved back two weeks from July 15 to July 29. Based on Kotara Isaka’s novel and penned by Zak Olkewicz, it stars (deep breath) Brad Pitt, Joey King, Aaron Taylor-Johnson, Brian Tyree Henry, Andrew Koji, Hiroyuki Sanada, Michael Shannon and Benito A Martínez Ocasio. It’s being positioned, alongside this week’s The Lost City, as one of the last chances to show that star-driven “movie-movies” can still pull a crowd despite streaming competition and Covid variables.

This minor but specific date change, taking the slot previously occupied by Black Adam before the Dwayne Johnson DC Films flick got shifted to October 21, shows that Sony would prefer Bullet Train be the last biggie of the summer. If it plays like Mission: Impossible Rogue Nation, they might just pull it off. From The Fugitive ($183 million from a $23 million debut in 1993) to The Sixth Sense ($292 million/$26 million in 1999) to Rise of the Planet of the Apes ($177 million/$54 million in 2011) and Hobbs & Shaw ($173 million/$59 million in 2019), being the last biggie of the season means longer-than-usual legs.

Christopher McQuarrie’s Tom Cruise actioner was supposed to open in December of 2015, four years after Brad Bird’s Ghost Protocol successfully revived the franchise (and Cruise’s career) via rave reviews and a $692 million global gross. When Disney moved Star Wars: The Force Awakens from May to December, Kung Fu Panda 3 fled to late January 2016 but Rogue Nation moved up by almost six months. The fifth installment turn out to be the best of the franchise, and nabbed $683 million worldwide by being the last tentpole of the summer.

Since Fantastic Four and The Man from U.N.C.L.E. both bombed in August of 2015, and Straight Outta Compton was an R-rated hip-hop biopic, Rogue Nation remained the ideal four-quadrant tentpole from late July to The Martian which opened with $55 million in early October. There’s almost nothing of consequence in August of this summer, at least in terms of tentpoles, meaning both Bullet Train and (opening one weekend earlier) Jordan Peele’s Nope could run the tables until Fall.

I’d be thrilled of Lionsgate’ Patrick Hughes-directed The Man from Toronto, starring Kevin Hart and Woody Harrelson, becomes the “next Hitman’s Bodyguard”, but otherwise the (non-horror) pickings are slim in terms of “big” late-summer flicks. Ditto September, where Are You There God? It’s Me, Margaret, Viola Davis’ The Woman King, Olivia Wilde’s Florence Pugh/Chris Pine thriller Don’t Worry Darling and Universal’s same-sex rom-com Bros will give audiences a chance to put their money where their mouth is.

Puss In Boost: The Last Wish opens September 23 (alongside Don’t Worry Darling) before a rather busy October (Across the Spider-Verse part I, Black Adam, Halloween Kills, etc.). Likely R-rating notwithstanding, if Bullet Train clicks in late July, it could be the last tentpole of summer 2022. That can matter even with less-than-optimal reception.

Will Smith’s Suicide Squad opened with $133 million in August 2016, dropped 67% in weekend two and still had longer legs than Captain America: Civil War for an eventual $325 million cume. Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles earned $191 million from a $65 million debut right alongside Guardians of the Galaxy ($773 million from a $94 million debut) when the rest of the August/September films (save for Denzel Washington’s R-rated The Equalizer) mostly played small.

Rogue Nation somewhat “lucked out” by being the early August biggie despite opening on July 31. That may have been Paramount’s thinking scheduling Mission: Impossible 7 on September 30 (before delaying it to July 14, 2023), that it would be the early October bl0w-out flick (Gravity, Gone Girl, The Martian, Venom, Joker, Venom 2). In this case, Bullet Train has a shot to be the last big consensus pick of the summer 2022 season, offering a long road to long legs.