Arnold Schwarzenegger’s Big Comeback Movie Will Get Dumped in the January Graveyard
Considering that Arnold Schwarzenegger has finally decided what movie he's going to do in the wake of ending his governorship and dealing with the fallout from his divorce and secret child, you'd have to assume that whatever project he picked would be treated as a major deal by the studio handling it. But that doesn't seem to be the case with Lionsgate, who will be releasing "The Last Stand." Or maybe we're jumping the gun: Does a movie coming out in January ever excite you?
The studio announced today that the Western will be arriving in theaters January 18, 2013. The project has had different plotlines floating around, but here's the one Deadline mentioned as part of today's story:
Schwarzenegger plays a cop who leaves the LAPD in disgrace and takes a job in a sleepy border town. There's little action until when an escaped drug kingpin heads toward the [town] at 200 mph in a specially outfitted car with a hostage and a fierce army of gang member escorts. The cop is the only thing standing in the way of the kingpin making it back across the border to safety.
The film will be the English-language debut of respected South Korean genre filmmaker Kim Ji-woon, who previously made "I Saw the Devil" and "The Good, the Bad, the Weird." So there are plenty of reasons to be curious about "The Last Stand." So why the January release date, which is usually the month studios drop their lesser projects?
The explanation might be that that will be Martin Luther King weekend, which tends to be a pretty strong weekend for releases. Also, there's no other titles yet claiming territory in January, meaning that Lionsgate is staking that weekend for itself, although it may have to contend with residual December 2012 properties like the first "Hobbit" movie, "Lone Ranger" and "Django Unchained."
It's certainly not impossible for great movies to open in January -- we still don't understand why Warner Bros. dumped "The Pledge" there back in 2001 -- but the fact remains that it's not a particularly vigorous month for box office. Maybe that's why Lionsgate's making this move; perhaps they think it's a wide-open marketplace. Or maybe they want to keep expectations in check for Schwarzenegger's comeback. By all accounts, "The Last Stand" isn't going to be a huge blockbuster. It's supposed to be a gritty character drama. In other words, this ain't "The Terminator." Plopping it down in January is the easiest way to let folks know just that.
Arnold Schwarzenegger Is Back On January 18, 2013 As Lionsgate Sets Release Of 'The Last Stand' [Deadline]
