(WARNING: I will go off-topic a lot in this article, so be prepared for that)
Is anyone familiar with Playmobil?
For those who don't know, Playmobil was a line of toys started by a German inventor named Hans Beck back in 1974. It took its influence heavily from Lego, since each set would come with parts that you put together to create one object. To this day, it remains as one of Lego's biggest competitors alongside Mega Bloks and K'NEX.
Flash-forward to 2014, when The Lego Movie was released in theaters.
Everyone thought it would be another one of those cheap, Sony Animation-style cash-grab pictures, but when it came out, not only did it get critical acclaim, but it had also made $470 million at the worldwide box office on a $60 million budget.
As expected, this lead Warner Bros. to start a huge franchise off of this film. Two spin-offs, The Lego Batman Movie and The Lego Ninjago Movie, were released earlier this year. A proper sequel is slated for 2019, and another spin-off titled The Billion Brick Race is currently in development.
This would then lead to other studios wanting to cash in on that success. One infamous example, also from earlier this year, would be Sony Pictures Animation's The Emoji Movie. It was panned by critics who basically said that it was one of the cheapest attempts to be "hip" with today's kids(typical Sony Animation, amirite?).
Going back on topic, the success of The Lego Movie not only encouraged Sony to make a film about those little faces that the kids like to send each other, but it also appears to have convinced Open Road Films that a movie based on one of Lego's competitors was commercially viable.
As such, Open Road had penciled in a release date for January 18, 2019. Sounds about right, since all the most anticipated films come out during that month!
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| Like that! |
This posed a problem for Open Road Films, since their animated films don't quite have the audience appeal of something from a major distributor like Fox. The Nut Job did well enough to warrant a sequel, but said sequel went belly-up at the box office. Spark: A Space Tail was barely given a release at all. Duck Duck Goose probably won't do well either, ditto Arctic Justice: Thunder Squad and Blazing Samurai. That is, assuming the latter gets made...
Anyways, about a month ago, Open Road finally decided to move Playmobil to a new release date. The date they chose was April 19, 2019. While that is one week after DisneyToon's untitled Cars spin-off with an outer space theme, it's still better than going against what should be another family picture from Blue Sky.
Here's where the rant comes in...
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| Here's proof, in case it fell off anybody else's radars. |
When Deadline reported the release date change, it fell off some people's radars. One notable example is the inspiration for this blog, Kyle Ostrum of Kyle's Animated World. He had not heard about it until his birthday came two weeks later. For the occasion, I decided to tell him in the comments of the article he had posted that day.
Another site that did not hear about it until I sent them an e-mail telling them so was Rotoscopers, a site that I was really into from 2013-early 2016. Their calendar has a lot of clustercusses to begin with, such as Arctic Justice being slated for 1/26/2018. To my understanding, Open Road never officially set a release date for that movie. Not to mention, the site doesn't really like to put release dates in their articles. One notable example I can think of it the untitled Disney Animation that was slated for 11/27/2019 before eventually becoming the untitled sequel to Frozen. The date was announced in August 2015 by Exhibitor Relations, and even Kyle Ostrum did an article about it then. However, since I had not heard of Kyle's Animated World until February 2016, I had not known that there was a Disney Animation film slated for 2019 until then. Meanwhile, I had known about the untitled Disney Animation film that was, and still is, slated for 11/25/2020. Looking back, it always struck me as odd when thinking "why isn't a Disney Animation film coming in 2019?"
Honestly, and this brings me to my next subject in terms of sites, I chalk it up to the fact that in October 2015, Variety(not the next site I'm bringing up, scroll downwards for that)had rolled out a huge Disney slate that went up to 2020. This is what Disney's 2017-2020 slate looked like once the news rolled out(films that were just added will be in blue):
03/17/2017-Beauty and the Beast
05/05/2017-Guardians of the Galaxy, Vol. 2
05/26/2017-Star Wars: The Last Jedi
06/16/2017-Cars 3
07/07/2017-Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Men Tell No Tales
07/28/2017-Spider-Man: Homecoming
11/03/2017-Thor: Ragnarok
11/22/2017-Coco
12/22/2017-Untitled Disney Fairy Tale
02/16/2018-Black Panther
03/09/2018-Gigantic
05/04/2018-Avengers: Infinity War Part I
05/25/2018-Solo: A Star Wars Story
06/15/2018-Toy Story 4
07/06/2018-Ant-Man and The Wasp
11/02/2018-Untitled Disney Fairy Tale
11/21/2018-Untitled Walt Disney Animation Studios Film
03/08/2019-Captain Marvel
03/29/2019-Untitled Disney Fairy Tale
04/12/2019-Untitled DisneyToon Film
05/03/2019-Avengers: Infinity War Part II
06/21/2019-The Incredibles 2
07/12/2019-Inhumans
11/08/2019-Untitled Disney Fairy Tale
11/27/2019-Untitled Walt Disney Animation Studios Film
03/13/2020-Untitled Pixar Film
05/01/2020-Untitled Marvel Film
06/19/2020-Untitled Pixar Film
07/10/2020-Untitled Marvel Film
11/06/2020-Untitled Marvel Film
11/25/2020-Untitled Walt Disney Animation Studios Film
You may notice the untitled Disney Animation films slated for 2018 and 2019 were not highlighted. This lead people to assume that those movies were no longer happening. It even got to the point where Box Office Mojo took them off their calendar entirely! I feel like Kyle Ostrum elaborates perfectly here.
Going back to the main subject, Box Office Mojo apparently did not hear that Playmobil moved. In fact, they still have it slated for 1/18/2019! Even after I recently sent them an e-mail discussing it, with links and everything! I thought that if it worked for Rotoscopers, it'll work with Box Office Mojo. But, here we are!
Now, here's where things get hilariously bad! Yesterday, Deadline posted an article that an actress, whose name escapes me at the moment, was going to lend her voice to Playmobil. Sounds interesting and all, but then you get to the part where the movie comes out, and look what it says!
Please tell me why Deadline, a site who reported on the date change, still thinks the movie is slated for January 18, 2019!
If anything, they probably forgot about the news and got the date info from Box Office Mojo. Like I said, they still have it slated for 1/18/2019. It reminds me of when they reported that Sherlock Gnomes had moved from 1/12/2018 to 3/23/2018. When stating what else was coming out that day, they had mentioned both Isle of Dogs and Anubis. Given that the date change happened in May 2017, the info was indeed correct.
However, the article also said that there was an Untitled Fox/DWA/Blue Sky set to open that day...one of the ten dates that was claimed back in 2013...
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| Angry rant mode incoming! RUN FOR YOUR LIFE!!!! |
BOTH OF THE AFOREMENTIONED MOVIES ARE FOX RELEASES!
The latter may have been postponed indefinitely, but the former is still on. As a matter of fact, Box Office Mojo still has the 6/29/2018 and 7/20/2018 films on their schedule!
Let's look at the other nine dates that Fox claimed back in 2013...
March 10, 2017-None here. I mean, you could argue that DreamWorks' The Boss Baby technically fills this slot, though that came out on March 31, 2017.
June 16, 2017-Nothing. DreamWorks' Captain Underpants movie could be here, but that was released on June 2, 2017. I didn't think Fox would use this date anyway, since Pixar had it for an untitled film that would eventually become Cars 3.
July 21, 2017-Nothing here. Besides, this release date would have placed it one week before Sony Animation's The Emoji Movie.
November 3, 2017-Not a damn thing! This date could have technically been used, since it's spaced out from both Sony Animation's The Star and Pixar's Coco. Had DreamWorks not gone through their big fallout in late 2014/early 2015, I could see, let's say, The Croods 2 filling this slot.
December 22, 2017-You might say that Blue Sky's Ferdinand would fit here, but that's opening the week before.
June 29, 2018-This date is technically breathable, having it after Pixar's Incredibles 2 and before Sony Animation's Hotel Transylvania 3: Summer Vacation. However, I can't see Blue Sky or DreamWorks using this slot, especially now that the latter is owned by Universal. Each studio's next films, Spies in Disguise and How To Train Your Dragon 3 respectively, are not out until 2019. Plus, Fox Animation themselves have movies slated through 2020, so this date is definitely a no-go.
July 20, 2018-Not a breathable date whatsoever, being sandwiched between Sony Animation's Hotel Transylvania 3: Summer Vacation and Warner Animation Group's Teen Titans Go! To The Movies.
November 2, 2018-Illumination's adaptation of Dr. Seuss' How The Grinch Stole Christmas is penciled in for the week after.
December 21, 2018-Sony Animation's Spider-Man: The Animated Movie comes out the week before.
It's quite amazing how only one release date was used, but the other nine have to go to waste. Makes me wonder who's going to pull that off next.
Back to Playmobil, I anonymously commented on the date change. It's not on the article now, but if you want to see proof that I wrote it, here's a screenshot:
After that had gone through, this happened:
Even with this whole fiasco, I still think the film will move back another week to 4/26/2019. That way, it'll be placed two weeks before the outer-space Cars movie, as opposed to one week. STX's Uglydolls adaptation will then open two weeks later. It'll be a win-win situation for all studios.
From here on out, if any more Playmobil-related screw-ups come about, I will put them in a photo album below:
UPDATE: (12/07/2017, 8:41 PM EST)
Not really a screw-up, but I thought I would mention it anyways...
Deadline just reported that Paramount Pictures has added two new movies to their slate, Instant Family and Pet Sematary. The latter of the two is slated for 4/19/2019, which is the same day as Playmobil.
When talking about what Pet Sematary would be competing against, this is what the article says, and has always said:
Finally getting the message, eh, Deadline?
Box Office Mojo, take notes!
UPDATE: (04/03/2018, 9:26 PM EST)
Took Box Office Mojo long enough! I still think Open Road(who is apparently releasing the movie under Global Road now)is going to move the film though, since Spies in Disguise recently landed in that slot. Methinks it'll go to August 2019. Either that, or Fox will move Spies to July 2019. The former is more likely than the latter in my opinion.
However, the good thing is that it is no longer stuck on BOM's radar. Now all they need to do is schedule Paramount/Skydance's Luck for March 19, 2021, and then I'll be a happy camper!
What say you?
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