As a result of 20th Century Fox shifting release dates for the next couple of years, Universal is staking their claim on some prime Summer real estate. With Matt Reeves‘ DAWN OF THE PLANET OF THE APES sequel moving to 2017, Universal will shift BOURNE 5 to July 29, 2016.
BOURNE 5, which reunites Matt Damon and director Paul Greengrass, was originally set to premiere two weeks earlier. With APES out of the way, the end of July is now free and clear. This also puts some distance between BOURNE 5 and STAR TREK 3 which was opening a week before the film’s original date of July 15th.
With 2015 already shaping up to be one hell of a year at the movies, studios cannot help but jump on any opportunity they have to position their planned releases better. Recent years have shown studios are not afraid to delay movies for prolonged periods (see G.I. JOE: RETALIATION, JUPITER ASCENDING) to put them in better box office windows. BOURNE 5 seems like a surefire hit for Universal and with the sequel to the Jeremy Renner-led THE BOURNE LEGACY still on track, I would expect the studio to do everything they can to ramp up this franchise.
BOURNE 5 is now slated for release on July 29, 2016.
