Ambulance release date shifts with Bullet Train’s

Michael Bay’s Ambulance and David Leitch’s upcoming action film, Bullet Train, are shifting release dates in 2022 with the new opening weekends likely serving both movies better in the long run.

Ambulance moves from February 18, 2022, to April 8, 2022, which is the weekend before Easter weekend. The news comes as Sony Pictures decided to move Bullet Train off of the April 8 weekend to avoid competing with Paramount Pictures’ Sonic the Hedgehog 2. It appears Michael Bay is willing to take on Sonic and his friends because Universal Pictures believes the new date will benefit Ambulance because spring break will likely inflate grosses. Previously, Ambulance was competing against Sony’s Uncharted on the February 18 date and now that release has a clearer path to success. In Ambulance, Jake Gyllenhaal, Yahya Abdul-Mateen II, and Eiza Gonzalez star in a story about two robbers who steal an ambulance after their heist goes awry.

As Bullet Train comes off of the April 8 weekend, the film will now release on July 15, 2022, respectively. The plus side to the new release date is that the film is now positioned as a summer movie release and it’s premiering on a weekend where there aren’t any major studio films scheduled. The action film will also be booked on premium large format screens. Bullet Train is based on the novel “Maria Beetle” and follows five assassins that find themselves on a Japanese bullet train where they realize that their individual assignments are all interconnected. The film stars Brad Pitt, Joey King, Andrew Koji, Aaron Taylor-Johnson, Brian Tyree Henry, Zazie Beetz, Masi Oka, Michael Shannon, Logan Lerman, Hiroyuki Sanada, Karen Fukuhara, Bad Bunny, and Sandra Bullock.

In other movement news, Sony also shifts Where the Crawdads Sing to July 22, 2022, from its original date of June 24, 2022. The film will now go up against Paramount Animations’ Under the Boardwalk and the Jordan Peele-directed horror movie, Nope. The film was previously launching on the same date as Baz Luhrmann’s movie Elvis and another Universal Blumhouse movie. Where the Crawdads Sing is based on the Delia Owens novel of the same name and follows a woman who raised herself in the marshes of the deep South, who then becomes the suspect in the murder of a man she was once involved with. The movie stars Daisy Edgar-Jones, John Smith, and Harris Dickinson.

What are YOUR thoughts on these release date changes?