Pacific Rim Beating Robopocalypse to the Punch - Moves Up to May 2013

The mid/late July spot has been good to Warner Brothers.

Since The Dark Knight in 2008, they've relied on putting a tentpole towards the middle-to-end of July and have it serve as the last "Event" picture of that summer, facing less severe competition. Notice the big returns on Harry Potter & the Half-Blood Prince in 2009 (The second installment to break $300 million stateside), Inception in 2010 and this past summer with the Potter swan-song Deathly Hallows – Part II being the highest grosser in the franchise’s history and 2011's #1 box-office champ.

That formula is no fluke and the anticipation for 2013 was for that movie to be Pacific Rim. But today the studio announced the futuristic "Giant fucking monsters against giant fucking robots" epic from Guillermo del Toro will instead bow out on May 10, 2013.

Had it stuck it out in July, you can't help but see the general movie-going public interpreting Rim as being too similar to Steven Spielberg's Robopocalypse. So slotting it just as the summer movie season is starting should be viewed as a wise decision.

Given WB's hard-on for that month, Pacific Rim now moved up and Disney/Marvel's decision this morning to jettison Thor 2 from July to November 2013, don't be surprised if the studio announces The Man of Steel going for their coveted July position.