Beleaguered Studio chief Amy Pascal countered the negative press about her revolving executive suite–global distribution and marketing chief Jeff Blake announced his departure Tuesday–by doing some spinning of her own. It is not coincidental that the studio revealed their “Spider-Man” plans for the next few years. Plainly, they need to remind skeptics that their biggest franchise (some $4 billion to date worldwide) is proceeding apace.
Columbia Pictures’ release strategy for the “Spider-Man” franchise: the next film in the series will be a villain spin-off from writer-director Drew Goddard, “Sinister Six,” which is “the first of several planned character and story expansions.” Produced by Avi Arad and Matt Tolmach, the movie will hit theaters on November 11, 2016.
Columbia is pushing back the release of the next installment, “The Amazing Spider-Man 3” by two years, from June 10 2016 to 2018. Clearly they see the need to take the time to figure out their best strategy to keep that franchise alive. Budgeted at over $250 million plus global marketing, “The Amazing Spider-Man 2” was not the box office juggernaut the studio had in mind, topping out at $202 million domestic–it was bailed out with $504 million foreign, for a $706 million total (remember, half of that comes back from theaters).
Taking that prime summer slot is action-adventure “Uncharted,” Seth Gordon’s movie adapted by David Guggenheim from Sony’s popular PlayStation® video game series about treasure hunter Nathan Drake. The Arad/Atlas Entertainment Production is produced by Charles Roven, Avi Arad, Alex Gartner and Ari Arad.
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