The Weinsteins start a videogame company, and shift release date of Apollo 18 and others

The videogame industry generates more annual revenue than the movie business, so it’s surprising the voracious Weinsteins haven’t already grabbed for a chunk of that cake.

Now they’re lurching into that lucrative business with TWC Games, which will develop and publish video games for mobile, social networks, and consoles. The games will be based on a handful of properties TWC/Dimension holds the rights to, such as SCREAM, HELLRAISER, HALLOWEEN, SCARY MOVIE, and CHILDREN OF THE CORN.

Meanwhile, the company is sliding their upcoming movies around the release schedule, most notably the “found footage” sci-fi thriller APOLLO 18, which was supposed to come out on April 22 but has now been shoved all the way to January 6, 2012.

APOLLO 18, which just started production last November, was already moved from its original planned date of March 4th.

It’s conceivable the shift is to allow more time to work on the movie, plus the Weinsteins are releasing SCREAM 4 on April 15th and would be competing with themselves for genre crowds the next weekend. But considering the company’s fluctuating financial situation over the past few years, this APOLLO 18 move could be less about strategy and more about funds — it’s quite possible they simply can’t afford to distribute and properly promote two wide releases that close to each other (plus their PG-13 censored edit of THE KING’S SPEECH re-release in April).

The Weinsteins have also splashed some other movies across the schedule, including Sundance acquisition MY IDIOT BROTHER (starring Paul Rudd) on August 26th, the Sarah Jessica Parker romcom I DON’T KNOW HOW SHE DOES IT on September 16th, and PIRANHA 3DD on November 23rd.