Let Battle Commence: Superhero Studios Fight For Best Opening Weekend
We live in a movie world of superheroes at the moment with franchise after franchise adding more and more sequels to their collections and production companies exploiting as many comic book successes as possible. However, while Thor protects Asgard with his big hammer, Superman tries to anonymously save the world with only a pair of specs as identity protection and Spider-Man deals with his abandonment issues, there are much more sinister fights afoot in production background.
The biggest battle is for release dates and the most recent clamber for the best one began when Sony announced its decision to ‘undate’ The Amazing Spider-Man 3 and The Amazing Spider-Man 4 which were scheduled to come out on June 10 2016 and May 4 2018 respectively.
The studio has said that The Amazing Spider-Man 3 will be postponed to 2018, with no new date confirmed.
The rescheduling of The Amazing Spider-Man 3 leads to questions about the plausibility of continuing to develop this latest franchise in the Spider-Man series, after The Amazing Spider-Man 2 fell foul to criticism of a plot too heavy and a narrative with too many characters and villains.
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However, it appears other superheroes are not suffering with any form of identity crisis and Marvel Studios and Disney swooped in quickly to lay claim to the weekend of May 2018; with a title as yet unknown.
Of course, this lack of a film confirmation has given rise to much speculation with the possibility of Avengers 3 looming large.
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Avengers: Age of Ultron will open on the first May weekend in 2015, three years to the exact date after The Avengers burst on to our screen in 2012.
Sony will not be resting on their laurels in 2016 and is planning to release Spider-Man spin-off, _The Sinister Six,_ that year; a film which centres on an alliance of mankind’s greatest enemies determined to destroy New York and Spider-Man.
_Next page: Will Captain America 3 go up against Batman v Superman 3?
Of course, Marvel Studios and Disney have a reason for such aggressive date claiming following the double booking disaster it now faces with Warner Bros. Marvel had claimed May 16 2016 for the release of Captain America 3 before Warner Bros. put its own stake in the ground on that date with Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice.
There is still a possibility that Warner Bros. will move its offering but, if it chooses not to, Captain America 3 may be in some bother coming up directly against one of the most hotly-anticipated superhero pairings ever.
While superhero combat very rarely disappoints in any of these comic book film adaptations, it would still be great to be a fly on the wall in the production offices as the release schedulers draw their fisticuffs and do battle for the prime time opening weekend spot.