Fearing its teen drama will be bulldozed by the likes of Rogue One: A Star Wars Story and Passengers, two upcoming tentpoles that also take place in the inky blackness of space, STX Entertainment has confirmed plans to postpone The Space Between Us to February 3, 2017.
Word of the last-minute delay hails from The Hollywood Reporter, confirming that the Peter Chelsom-directed adventure has now uprooted from its original December 16 slot. When you consider that Rogue One is on course to light up theaters on the same date, potentially raking in $130 million across its opening weekend, news of STX’s decision isn’t all that surprising. The Space Between Us simply needed to put some distance between it and its genre contemporaries, or risk fizzling out in one of the most crowded corridors on the Hollywood calendar. Don’t forget that late December is also playing host to heavy-hitters in the vein of La La Land, Assassin’s Creed and Peter Berg’s Patriots Day.
In light of the delay, The Space Between Us now shares a release date with heist drama Collide – which, incidentally, also stars Rogue One‘s Felicity Jones – and the long-in-development Rings from Paramount. Asa Butterfield is attached to spearhead the Martian drama as Gardner Elliot, a brainy teenager marooned on the Red Planet after his mother dies during childbirth. Also starring Britt Robertson and Gary Oldman, Peter Chelsom’s YA drama then chronicles his journey back to Earth, and the nerve-wracking process of assimilating into a society that is completely alien to Butterfield’s lead.
The Space Between Us will now dock in theaters on February 3, 2017. Will STX’s delay benefit Peter Chelsom’s teen drama in the long run? Time will tell.
