Papa Vinyard here, now here's a little somethin' for ya...
As confirmation that the project has taken a huge hit in commercial viability since George Clooney and Tom Cruise jumped ship, Warner Bros. has announced that Guy Ritchie's update of THE MAN FROM U.N.C.L.E. will be released on January 16th, 2015. This severely unattractive post-New Year's date currently puts it up against Michael Mann's CYBER and the James McAvoy/Daniel Radcliffe FRANKENSTEIN reboot.
Those latter projects seem far more appropriate for a mid-January release than this franchise-ready, $75 million-budgeted spy flick. WB has chosen the week that another espionage-themed reboot, JACK RYAN: SHADOW RECRUIT premiered, and underperformed in, this past January, and that film's budget was about 15 mil shy of U.N.C.L.E.'s. My guess is they're hedging their bets, and not taking any chances on Henry Cavill or Armie Hammer's slowly-increasing popularity levels over the next year. Without any proven box-office draws (aside from maybe Hugh Grant) and a property that is completely foreign to contemporary youths, THE MAN FROM U.N.C.L.E. isn't as sexy of a project as it may have seemed a couple years back when dudes like Soderbergh and Clooney were onboard. I highly doubt they'd be able to sell this thing to the masses on Ritchie's name alone.
But hey, the jury's out on the actual film, and just because there haven't been many sizable January openings doesn't mean they never happen (RIDE ALONG just beat CLOVERFIELD's record at 41.5 million), so maybe this is a smart play that gives this little guy a chance away from the big dogs of December '14, like THE HOBBIT: THERE AND BACK AGAIN, INTO THE WOODS, and NIGHT AT THE MUSEUM 3.
THE MAN FROM U.N.C.L.E. gets ready for action on January 16th, 2015.
-Vincent Zahedi
”Papa Vinyard”
vincentzahedi@gmail.com
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