20th Century Studios’ “Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes” was supposed to open over Memorial Day weekend, one of the biggest movie weekends of the year, but the film has just had that date changed.
The Details
The film may no longer be scheduled for May 24, 2024, but the good news is fans of the film series will be able to see this newest installment two weeks earlier, as “Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes” is now due in theaters on May 10, 2024.
The studio hasn’t given a reason for the change, but one reason might be that on the original date, it would have been pitted against the Mad Max prequel “Furiosa” starring Anna Taylor-Joy and Chris Hemsworth.
Another is that the new date will allow the film greater access to IMAX screens for two whole weeks before “Furiosa” will be taking some.
This will reportedly be the first time a “Planet of the Apes” movie will play in IMAX, too.
The Film
Directed by Wes Ball (“Maze Runner” trilogy), “Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes” takes place many years after the end of the Matt Reeves-directed 2017 feature, “War for the Planet of the Apes,” which showed Caesar leading his kind to an oasis.
Set further in the future, the film picks up generations after Caesar’s reign, an era in which apes are the dominant species living harmoniously, and humans have been reduced to living in the shadows.
As a new tyrannical ape leader, Proximus Caesar, perverts the teachings of Caesar to enslave other clans in search of the last traces of a secret human technology, one young ape undertakes a harrowing journey that will cause him to question all he has known about the past and to make choices that will define a future for apes and humans alike.
The film stars stars Owen Teague, Freya Allan, Kevin Durand, Peter Macon, Dichen Lachman, and William H. Macy.
The franchise first launched in 1968 with the Charlton Heston-led “Planet of the Apes,” loosely based on the 1963 novel from Pierre Boulle. After four sequels and a pair of television series, the franchise returned in 2001 with a Tim Burton-directed reboot before a relaunch in 2011 with Rupert Wyatt’s “Rise of the Planet of the Apes,” which featured Andy Serkis as Caesar. Its sequels included “Dawn of the Planet of the Apes” in 2014, and the aforementioned “War for the Planet of the Apes.”
Will you be seeing this film in the theaters? Maybe IMAX? Let us know in the comments.