2013 will bring us another year of incredible movies and Universal has announced a couple of release date changes for their upcoming titles: Identity Thief, Jurassic Park 3D, About Time, 47 Ronin, Kick-Ass 2, R.I.P.D..

Of course with every date change comes the question of the state of the movie itself. So while some of these release date shifts may come as a shock, others are not so surprising.

Let’s start of chronologically. Seth Gordon‘s comedy Identity Thief starring Jason Bateman and Melissa McCarthy will be released on February 8th, 2013. The Jurassic Park 3D release will open in theaters on Aprtil 5th, 2013, while Richard Curtis‘ romantic time-travel feature, About Time, starring Rachel MacAdams, has been set for a May 10, 2013 release.

That will be followed up the June 28th, 2013 release of Kick-Ass 2. Then the big screen adaptation of the supernatural police comic R.I.P.D. starring Jeff Bridges and Ryan Reynolds has been scheduled to be released on July 19th, 2013. And finally the Keanu Reeves 3D samurai film 47 Ronin has been pushed back all the way to Christmas 2013.

This newest scheduling change for 47 Ronin marks the second time that it has happened. Originally the film was set for a November 2012 release, but it was shifted to February 8, 2013. Deadline reports that none of the reshoots or visual effects works could be done in time to make the February release. Much of that is because the post-production work is being completed in London, and there was just no time for anyone to work on the film with the Olympic festivities going on for the past two weeks.

So even though 47 Ronin has been through two scheduling changes, which usually doesn’t bode well for any film, but the fact that it’s being released in a prime winter holiday season slot shows that it still has a lot of promise.

When the time comes, we shall see if all these scheduling changes were the right decision for Universal.

[Source: Deadline | Box Office Mojo]