Man, that STAR WARS move was a bomb drop. You’ve got SPIDER-MAN, BAYWATCH, PIRATES OF THE CARIBBEAN, and JUMANJI immediately getting moved around because of that 7 month push-back, and now, you’ve got THE MUMMY moving (a little slower than the others, naturally) nearly three months back.
Instead of late March of 2017, THE MUMMY will now bow on June 9th of that year, up against WORLD WAR Z 2 and DIVERGENT: ASCENDANT. It’s a bit cluttered (for now), but considerably less so than when EPISODE VIII was set to come out on May 26th. There was very little possibility MUMMY (or the other two films, for that matter) would have any sort of chance of besting SW for the number one slot only two weeks after its release, but now that Johnson’s flick is coming in December, it makes sense for Universal to position their big monster movie kickoff in the prime Summer slot. After all, the ’99 MUMMY made a killing in early May, and I remember my friends and I embracing it as the first legit summer movie of that season (coincidentally a week and a half before the first SW film released in my lifetime…).
Alex Kurtzman’s involvement in this is the only thing giving me pause, as I’m fascinated by Cruise and Sofie Boutella’s casting, the contemporary setting, and the attempt by Universal to usher in a new era for their classic monster line. I’m thinking it could work that June release date like the first WORLD WAR Z did, getting young horror fans to ride that post-school high right into the theater to see some monster-on-human action.
Anyone else excited to see Cruise vs. MUMMY next summer?
Say hi to your MUMMY for me on May 26th, 2017.
