Six Billion Dollar Man, Godzilla 2, & more play the release date shuffle

Last Updated on August 5, 2021

When studios announce release dates years in advance, there are a variety of reasons why those dates may change, ranging from production delays, departing directors, or even to simply move the film to a more appropriate date. Studios have been playing a bit of release date shuffle today, as well as announcing dates for new films, and you can check those out below.

Mark Wahlberg's THE SIX BILLION DOLLAR MAN, which recently lost director Damian Szifron, has been moved from May 31, 2019 to June 5, 2020.

Mike Flanagan's DOCTOR SLEEP, the sequel to Stephen King's THE SHINING, will hit theaters on January 24, 2020.

GODZILLA: KING OF THE MONSTERS has moved from March 22, 2019 to May 31, 2019, filling THE SIX BILLION DOLLAR MAN's old slot.

CRAZY RICH ASIANS has moved up slightly, going from August 17, 2018 to August 15, 2018.

PET SEMETARY has also been bumped up, moving from April 19, 2019 to April 5, 2019.

Dexter Fletcher's Elton John biopic ROCKETMAN starring Taron Egerton has been slated for a May 17, 2019 release.

TRANSFORMERS 6, which was previously slated to debut on June 28, 2019, has now been removed from the schedule completely. Ruh oh.

In regards to TRANSFORMERS being bumped off, I can't say that I'm surprised. The TRANSFORMERS franchise has always managed to clean up at the box-office, but although last year's TRANSFORMERS: THE LAST KNIGHT still brought in a good chunk of change, its box-office take was considerably lower than all of the other films in the franchise, amounting to just $604 million. When compared to TRANSFORMERS: AGE OF EXTINCTION's $1.10 billion, that's quite the drop. Paramount Pictures may even be looking to reboot the franchise, as Hasbro stated at an investor's preview at the 2018 New York Toy Fair that "a new team at Paramount will reset the Transformers Live Action Movie Series following the release of Bumblebee: The Movie." The upcoming spin-off is now the only TRANSFORMERS project on the books right now, and the film stars Hailee Steinfeld and John Cena. Taking place in 1987, the film will find Bumblebee forced to hide out in a small Californian beach town junkyard, which is where he meets Charlie (Steinfeld), a young woman on the cusp of turning 18 who is trying to find her place in the world. When Charlie revives the battle-scarred and broken Bumblebee, she quickly learns this is no ordinary, yellow VW bug.

BUMBLEBEE will hit theaters on December 21, 2018.