Movie fans are going to have to wait just a little bit longer for Bong Joon-ho’s Robert Pattinson-starring Mickey 17. On Wednesday, it was announced that the eagerly anticipated sci-fi film will move from January 21, 2025, to April 18. 2025, but for a reason that should make the delay a little easier for fans to accept. According to Variety, the shift of a three months means that Mickey 17 will be able to screen in IMAX as well as potentially capture the Easter holiday movie crowd. The release date switch was prompted by the moving of Antoine Fuqua’s Michael Jackson biopic Michael which was previously set to open in the April 18th slot and would have taken up IMAX screens as well as other premium large format screens. That film was moved to October 3rd by Lionsgate earlier this week.
“When the April 18 date became available, we quickly moved to secure it for Mickey 17,” a statement from a Warner Bros. spokesperson reads. “We’re thrilled with the new date, and very happy the film will be available to audiences in IMAX.”
This release date change is just the latest for Mickey 17, which had previously been dated for March 29, 2024, but was shifted to the 2025 due date reportedly after being impacted by the 2024 Hollywood strikes. As for the now-vacated January 31st date, Warner Bros. is moving the psychological thriller Companion to that date. That film had been slotted for January 10th.
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Historically, the Easter weekend can be a lucrative one for movie studios. 2016’s Batman v. Superman: Dawn of Justice opened over the Easter weekend and is the biggest Easter opener of all time. Other high-performing films that have opened over the Easter holiday weekend include The Super Mario Bros. Movie, Godzilla x Kong: The New Empire, and Furious 7. Additionally, Warner Bros. already had the April 18, 2025, release date on hold for an untitled event movie — likely because holiday weekends are lucrative at the box office. For the studio, moving the highly anticipated Mickey 17 into that slot just makes solid business sense.
Mickey 17 is easily one of 2025’s most anticipated films and for good reason. The film not only stars The Batman’s Robert Pattinson but also comes from Bong Joon-ho who achieved near-universal acclaim with 2019’s Parasite — the film won the Academy Award for Best Picture at the 92nd Academy Awards, making it the first non-English language film to do so. Mickey 17 is based on Edward Ashton’s novel Mickey 7 and tells the story of Mickey (Pattinson, an “Expendable” — a disposable employee sent on a human expedition sent to colonize the ice world, Niflheim. Anytime there is a mission too dangerous or even flat out suicidal, the crew turns to Mickey and after one iteration of Mickey dies, a new body is regenerated with most of his memories intact. However, after one of his “multiples’, Mickey 17, unintentionally survives he ends up going head-to-head with a new multiple, Mickey 18. The film also stars Steven Yeun, Mark Ruffalo, Toni Collette, Naomi Ackie, and Steve Park. Bong adapted the novel for the film’s screenplay — and Ashton has previously said he is confident Bong will do a fantastic job with the source material.
“Director Bong does his own thing and he’s writing the script,” Ashton said in a previous interview. “He asked for my input on a few things early on, like some details I had not considered when I was writing the book, such as ‘How do Creepers reproduce?’ That was a great question, and we talked it through. A lot of people have asked if I’m nervous since he has a reputation for diverting from the source material. My answer was absolutely not. That man is a genius. I’ve seen all of his films, and he’s never made a bad one. I don’t think he’s going to start with Mickey 7. He’ll do a fantastic job.”
Mickey 17 is now scheduled to open in theaters on April 18, 2025.
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