In what would’ve been quite the action movie showdown versus Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes and Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga, the former film is the one that blinked.
Disney’s 20th Century Studios announced on Friday that the latest movie in the Planet of the Apes series has been bumped up a few weeks from May 24, 2024, to May 10, 2024. That moves it out of a packed Memorial Day weekend line-up that also includes the highly anticipated Furiosa as well as The Garfield Movie (so yes, the Furryosa double feature still lives).
It’s a smart move, especially considering the amount of IMAX screens that’ll be freed up at that new release date. It does, however, bump it quite a bit closer to Ryan Gosling/Emily Blunt action thriller The Fall Guy, which premieres one week prior.
It also would’ve faced some competition from Deadpool 3, which was previously set to debut on May 3 before being delayed to July 26 in a big post-strike Disney shuffle.
Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes is directed by Wes Ball (who’s also directing the upcoming live-action The Legend of Zelda film) and aims to set up a new trilogy 300 years after the end of Cesar. Furiosa, meanwhile, is both a prequel and spinoff of the beloved Mad Max: Fury Road, with Anya Taylor-Joy playing a younger version of the Charlize Theron character.
Today’s announcement is only the latest release date shuffle as studios solidify their 2024 schedules following last year’s actors’ and writers’ strikes. Earlier this week, Warner Bros. bumped up Godzilla x Kong: The New Empire while removing Bong Joon-Ho’s Mickey 17 from the calendar, and Sony moved Ghostbusters: Frozen Empire up one week.
Alex Stedman is a Senior News Editor with IGN, overseeing entertainment reporting. When she’s not writing or editing, you can find her reading fantasy novels or playing Dungeons & Dragons.
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