Those of us (and I count myself as one of them) who are excited to see Adam Driver fight dinosaurs with a big space gun need to wait just a tiny bit longer to do so. As reported by Deadline, Sony Pictures has shifted its release calendar for 2023, with 65 getting kicked down the road. The good news? The delay is only for a week. The bad news? Sony is getting out of the way of some major competition only to find itself in the crosshairs of an even bigger blockbuster.
65, which we just got a trailer for recently, is now set to open on March 17 instead of March 10. On its original release date, the sci-fi flick from A Quiet Place writers Scott Beck and Bryan Woods was going up against Scream 6. Given that they’ll likely both be attracting a genre-focused crowd, Sony was wise to move off that date and make way for Ghostface. Unfortunately, that new date is the very same day that Shazam! Fury of the Gods is set to open in theaters, which figures to draw a huge crowd given the performance of the original. Essentially, Sony would rather counterprogram against a big superhero movie rather than go up against a surefire hit horror franchise entry.
On the one hand, this is a good sign, as it looks like 2023 is going to have plenty to offer moviegoers. So much so that it is a little tough to find a good spot for a movie like this on the calendar. The potential downside is that if things become too crowded, originals like this run the risk of getting lost in the flow. The challenges of the current theatrical marketplace are an unenviable headache for anyone running a studio. Here is the synopsis for 65:
“After a catastrophic crash on an unknown planet, pilot Mills (Adam Driver) quickly discovers he’s actually stranded on Earth…65 million years ago. Now, with only one chance at rescue, Mills and the only other survivor, Koa (Ariana Greenblatt), must make their way across an unknown terrain riddled with dangerous prehistoric creatures in an epic fight to survive.”
Beck and Woods directed the film, which is also produced by Sam Raimi. Driver and Greenblatt are the only human cast members named thus far. Though, given the premise, it seems unlikely there will be too many humans running around. Bring on the dinosaurs!
65 is set to hit theaters on March 17, 2023.
