The Weinstein Company and Dimension Films are moving their next release, “Amityville: The Awakening,” from April 1 to Jan. 6, 2017 — the horror sequel’s third move in the past two years.
Franck Khalfoun (“Maniac”) directed the movie, which stars Bella Thorne, Cameron Monaghan and Jennifer Jason Leigh. “Amityville” was originally slated for release on Jan. 2, 2015 before TWC bumped it to April 15, 2016 and then moved up the release by two weeks.
TWC is pointing to the success of past horror movies in early January to explain the move, though there are already three competing films in that genre due in January 2017 — “Friday the 13th,” M. Night Shyamalan‘s “Split” and “Resident Evil: The Final Chapter.”
“Amityville” will hit theaters before the rest of those fright films, but it will still have to compete with Tom Cruise‘s “Mena” and Christmas holdovers such as “Assassin’s Creed” and “Passengers” starring Chris Pratt and Jennifer Lawrence.
Insiders said the company wanted to focus on the release of John Carney’s indie musical “Sing Street,” which could prove to be a sleeper hit when it charms its way into theaters on April 15.
The Weinstein Company has had a rough six months at the domestic box office, releasing “Shanghai” ($46,425), “Burnt” ($13.6 million), “Carol” ($12.6 million) “Macbeth” ($1.1 million) and “The Hateful Eight” ($54 million).
Quentin Tarantino‘s Western did gross $98 million overseas but the reported production budget was $62 million, not taking into account the cost of outfitting theaters with 70mm projectors as well as an expensive roadshow and awards-season marketing campaign.
This year, TWC has released the Ethan Hawke–Emma Watson thriller “Regression” on exactly 100 theaters to a domestic gross of just $55,000, while Natalie Portman‘s trouble-plagued “Jane Got a Gun” grossed $1.5 million despite opening on more than 1,000 screens.
After “Sing Street,” TWC has a strong slate with Michael Keaton‘s McDonald’s movie “The Founder” (Aug. 5), the Edgar Ramirez–Robert De Niro boxing movie “Hands of Stone” (Aug. 26), the Dev Patel–Rooney Mara drama “Lion” and the upcoming Matthew McConaughey drama “Gold.”