It looks like Lionsgate thinks the Ryan Reynolds/Sam Jackson/Salma Hayek/Antonio Banderas/Morgan Freeman sequel is a crowd-pleaser...

First, the quick news. Sony has once again moved the domestic release date for Peter Rabbit: The Runaway. The film, which opened well enough with $6.4 million in the United Kingdom (compared to $10 million for Peter Rabbit in early 2018), was slated for June 18 where it would have opened against the Wed-Sun debut of Lionsgate’s The Hitman’s Wife’s Bodyguard. But now the James Cordon-starring live-action/animated sequel will debut on June 11, where it will play alongside Warner Bros.’ buzzy In the Heights. This isn’t earth-shaking news, but this one does hope that, when it comes to domestic release dates, the tenth time is the charm.

Yes, this is the tenth planned release date for Peter Rabbit 2, which has to be a record. To wit, the film was scheduled for release on February 7, 2020 before moving to April 3, 2020. The pandemic upended things soon after, with the film moving to August 7, 2020 before being pushed to 2021. It was then scheduled for (deep breath) January 15, April 2, June 11, May 14 (after Godzilla Vs. Kong showed that life might be safe for theaters), July 2 (after Minions 2 moved to July 2022), June 18 and now back to June 11. Its tenth and hopefully final release date was also its fifth release date.

This doesn’t “mean” anything, except maybe giving Peter Rabbit 2 an extra week between itself and Universal and DreamWorks Animation’s The Boss Baby: Family Business which just jumped from September 17 to July 2. Even in an era where everyone is claiming that theatrical doesn’t matter or streaming is the future, Sony sure seems to care about the best possible release date even for a comparatively small-scale flick like The Runaway. Then again, if your previous film earned $350 million worldwide on a $50 million budget, you’d put some effort into scheduling the $45 million-budgeted follow-up too. The film, which will open in China on June 11 as well, has thus far earned $30.2 million worldwide.

Meanwhile, in only slightly related news, Lionsgate just announced a nationwide paid sneak preview of The Hitman’s Wife’s Bodyguard. The sneak will take place on June 10, just six days before its June 16 release date. However, since it’s a team-up deal with Atom Tickets and Snapchat, you have to buy your tickets via Snapchat via the “Movie Tickets By Atom Snap Mini.” As an old man scared by newfangled technology, I suppose I’ll have to ask my kids for help on this one. It was just a year ago when I had to ask my then-eight-year-old son how to navigate Fortnite so I could watch the second Tenet trailer.

Not only are they opening the movie on a Wednesday presumably to build word-of-mouth, Lionsgate is holding a nationwide sneak for the same general purposes. Whether or not I like the sequel, and I rather enjoyed Patrick Hughes’ The Hitman’s Bodyguard when I saw it at the 2017 Cinemacon, the studio clearly thinks general moviegoers will relish its specific pleasures or at least the mere notion of Ryan Reynolds, Samuel L. Jackson, Salma Hayek, Antonio Banderas and Morgan Freeman engaging in action-comedy hijinks. I am reminded of Gene Siskel’s “Is this film more interesting than a documentary of the same actors having lunch?” critical inquiry.

As I noted this morning, when the R-rated action-comedy sequel popped up among the ten most-anticipated summer movies on Fandango’s seasonal poll, I’m not expecting a Lethal Weapon 2-style breakout here, especially on a Covid curve. That said, the film earned $76 million domestic and $172 million worldwide on a $30 million budget, which is not only much better than John Wick ($44 million domestic and $88 million worldwide on a $30 million budget in 2014) but about tied with John Wick: Chapter 2 ($92 million/$171 million/$40 million in 2017). So it could merely tie its predecessor (on, say, a $40-$50 million budget) and still be on par with the second Keanu Reeves actioner.