Yahoo News ‘Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes’ Moves Up Two Weeks in May to Avoid ‘Furiosa’
Filmmaker Wes Ball’s 2024 summer tentpole Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes will try to conquer moviegoers two weeks early.
Disney’s 20th Century Studios announced Friday that the film will now open May 10 instead of May 24. The shift gives it distance from the crowded Memorial Day marquee, which includes George Miller’s Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga (Warner Bros.) and The Garfield Movie (Sony).
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The move was a no-brainer since there is no direct competition on that date in terms of a new tentpole. Plus, it gives Planet of the Apes Imax screens for the first two weeks of its a release, as well as other large-format screens (it’s the first of the multitude of the Apes films to play in Imax.)
In its new date, the event pic will open opposite Focus Features’ Amy Winehouse film Fade to Black. And it bows once week after Universal’s The Fall Guy, starring Ryan Gosling and Emily Blunt, officially kicks off the summer box office. Opening a week after Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes is Paramount’s If, directed by and starring John Krasinski, opposite Ryan Reynolds.
Ball‘s film is the fourth title in the rebooted Apes franchise and takes place many years after the end of Matt Reeves’ 2017 feature, War for the Planet of the Apes, which is the most recent movie in the enduring series. Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes stars Owen Teague, Freya Allan, Peter Macon, Eka Darville, Kevin Durand, William H. Macy and Dichen Lachman.
After the 2017 film showed Caesar leading his kind to an oasis, Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes picks up with numerous ape societies continuing to thrive, while humans have been reduced to a nearly feral existence. As one ape ruler enslaves others amid his quest for human technology, a different ape seeks freedom and hopes to work with a young human woman to achieve that goal.
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