You Had One Job, Sony! “Elysium” and “RoboCop” Each Pushed Back Several Months

As of yesterday morning, there were only two viral campaigns on the horizon for 2013, Elysium and RoboCop, and both are being released by Sony’s Columbia Pictures. However, yesterday afternoon Sony announced new dates for the two films, as well as Cloudy With a Chance of Meatballs 2. Details after the break.

Sony has pulled RoboCop from its August 9th slot and put Neill Blomkamp’s Elysium in its place. Moving Elysium (originally slated for March 1st) to August is a smart move on Sony’s part, as Blomkamp has previously had success in that month with District 9. However, we have to ask ourselves what this means for RoboCop, which has been pushed back to less desirable slot of February 7, 2014.

Last month, First Showing had an editorial that completely ripped Sony/MGM for their handling of the RoboCop remake, saying that it was already a flop. At the time, I thought the sentiment was rather premature and frankly inaccurate, but now I have some second thoughts. Moving an expensive (at least $100 million by some accounts) sci-fi action film from the summer to the depths of winter seems like death sentence, but maybe they will use that time to tweek the film and make it better.

Cloudy With a Chance of Meatballs 2 will be released on Sept. 27, 2013 and Adam Sandler’s Pixels, based on this short film, has been removed completely from Sony’s release calendar after previously being slated for May 23, 2014.

What do you think about all of these changes? Will we still see a viral campaign for RoboCop if the studio is basically dumping it? Let us know your thoughts in the comments below.

Source: Variety