GI Joe: Retaliation pushed back to March

Paramount is moving the US release of G.I Joe: Retaliation from June 29 to March 29 next year and converting it to 3D. Sources at the studio told the Hollywood Reporter that for Paramount to recoup its investment  in the $125 million film – it financed 50 per cent of the sequel, while MGM and Skydance Productions put up 25 each – a 3D conversion needs to happen, and it wants to make sure the conversion is done right. They point to the recent 3D version of James Cameron’s Titanic as a success story.

However the movie is based on a Hasbro toy line, and some might blame the shift on the disappointing US box office of Universal's Battleship, the adaptation of the Hasbro board game that opened to just $25.5 million last weekend. “Battleship reminds you that if you don’t do it right, you’re screwed,” says one insider.

Paramount's first instalment of the franchise, G.I. Joe: The Rise of Cobra, grossed $300 million worldwide in 2009.  

It's unusual for studios to change release dates less than five weeks before the film is due in cinemas, but this isn’t the first time Paramount has made such a high-profile switch. It moved the Martin Scorsese-Leonard DiCaprio thriller Shutter Island into a winter slot and it went on to become into Scorsese’s biggest box-office hit.

G.I. Joe: Retaliation’s cast includes Dwayne Johnson, Bruce Willis, Adrianne Palicki and Jonathan Price. It is directed by John Chu.