'Ted' takes the vacated 'G.I. Joe' release date; "Life of Pi' moves up a month

There's been a hysterical reaction to yesterday's announcement that Paramount had suddenly pulled the rug out from G.I. Joe: Retaliation and sent it hurtling into March of 2013. It's really not that hard to figure out why they did it, and no, it doesn't mean that the movie stinks. It might stink, but that's not why it got moved. While they say it was to convert it for 3D, the real reason is that this summer has way too many action heavy movies too close together, and G.I. Joe wouldn't have stood a chance of succeeding. It stands a better chance squaring off against Stephenie Meyer's The Host than The Amazing Spider-Man, Prometheus, and The Dark Knight Rises. A movie like G.I Joe is going to need long legs to get a return on Paramount's investment, and that just wouldn't be possible this year.

Universal has taken notice of the vacated spot, and is jumping in to take advantage by moving the Seth MacFarlane/Mark Wahlberg comedy, Ted, into the June 29th date. MacFarlane will write, direct, and voice the the foul mouthed teddy bear at the center of the story, who sprang to life and has been interfering in the life of his owner(Wahlberg) since childhood.  I'm not so sure this is the wisest move for Universal, either, as it faces similarly light-hearted competition from Madea's Witness Protection and Magic Mike that weekend.

I've mentioned many times how this December is arguably the craziest month for major releases we've seen in years, with nearly a dozen highly anticipated films all jockeying for attention. Some of them simply had to bail out, and either move up into the leaner fall months, or push back into 2013. First it was World War Z which got bumped to June 2013.  The next to budge is Life of Pi, Ang Lee's adaptation of Yann Martel's fantastic novel, which has now been slotted for November 21st. No doubt bolstered by the amazing buzz from the release of some early footage and one dazzling image, clearly there are some Oscar hopes involved in the move. It'll face some relatively weak competition from the Red Dawn remake and David O. Russell's The Silver Linings Playbook.

Lastly, the Owen Wilson/Vince Vaughn/Shawn Levy comedy, The Internship, has been slotted for June 28th 2013. The film has the Wedding Crashers stars as a pair of middle aged guys who suddenly get laid off, and are forced to re-enter the workforce on the bottom rung of a prominent technology company, where they must compete against younger, ambitious upstarts.