As Paramount Pictures braces for this week’s opening of Paranormal Activity: The Ghost Dimension, the studio said today it is pushing back the release dates for two franchise horror films by half a year. The threequel Rings had been set for November 13 but now won’t be unleashed until April 1, 2016. Meanwhile, Jason Voorhees must be getting seriously impatient: The next installment of the undying Friday The 13th series won’t begin its killing spree on May 13 as planned, instead moving to January 13, 2017. It’s the third time the film has been pushed — all to a triskaidekaphobic-unfriendly Friday, of course.
When the mayhem finally does commence, Rings will go up against April Fool’s Day rivals including Open Road’s Nicholas Hoult-Felicity Jones actioner Collide and Fox’s Olympic-size biopic Eddie The Eagle. Friday The 13th will be unsheathed against Sony’s Stephen King adaptation The Dark Tower, Warner Bros’ Dean Devlin-helmed disaster pic Geostorm and Fox’s NASA-themed Hidden Figures.
The first two Rings film combined for $411M worldwide, and the third chapter is directed by F. Javier Gutiérrez from a script by David Loucka, Jacob Aaron Estes and Akiva Goldsman. The latest incarnation of Friday The 13th is the first for the franchise since the late aughts, when studios were updating their classic horror franchises for millennials. Warner Bros/New Line’s Friday The 13th bowed to a solid $40.6M in February 2009 en route to $65M.
Must Read Stories
Subscribe to Deadline Breaking News Alerts and keep your inbox happy.