Ant-Man Gets Bumped Up To Batman Vs. Superman’s Former Release Date

A few weeks ago we heard that Batman Vs. Superman was vacating its summer 2015 slot in favor of May 2016. It was safe to assume such a prime weekend wouldn’t remain unclaimed for too long, and sure enough, today we have word that Disney is swooping in and bumping Ant-Man up to July 17th.

This is the second date change for the Edgar Wright-directed superhero flick, as it was originally slated to release November 5, 2015 before moving to July 31st of the same year. It’s not the only big movie coming out that weekend either, with Warner Bros. scheduling their Peter Pan origin tale, Pan, for that same weekend. Still, Pan won’t draw nearly as big of an audience as Batman Vs. Superman would have, meaning Ant-Man should have no trouble winning the box office battle.

In previous years, that particular weekend has been huge for Warner Bros. Films like Inception, Charlie And The Chocolate Factory, The Dark Knight, and Harry Potter And The Deathly Hollows Part II have raked in significant amounts of cash by opening then and the studio was obviously hoping for more of the same with Batman Vs. Superman. While moving up two weeks probably won’t do all that much for Ant-Man, it makes sense that they would want to snag a piece of that pie. Then again, the move could have less to do with finances and more to do with the growing rivalry between the two studios.

May 6, 2016, which is the new release date for Batman Vs. Superman, is when we’re also supposed to see a mystery Marvel project. It’s unlikely that Warner Bros. would have moved to that weekend unless they thought their rival would back down. While that may be the case, this move for Ant-Man sure seems like Marvel’s retaliation. If that is what’s going on, I absolutely love it. DC and Marvel are obviously dueling forces, with fans on either side adamantly insisting their comic universe is better. Competition breeds success, so I’m happy the studios are really starting to go back and forth. Hopefully that keeps up and the films are even better for it.

What do you think of Ant-Man‘s date change? Is this the next step in a feud between the super-studios? Share your thoughts in the comments section below.