Sandra Bullock and Melissa McCarthy's The Heat Pushes Release Date Back

To paraphrase the great Glen Frey, The Heat was on … but now it’s off. Temporarily, at least.

Exhibitor Relations confirmed via its Twitter account that Paul Feig’s buddy-cop comedy, which pairs Sandra Bullock and Melissa McCarthy, has shifted its release date from April 5 to June 28.

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That means Feig’s follow up to the fantastic Bridesmaids will face off against Kick-Ass 2 and Channing Tatum’s action-thriller White House Down, from director Roland Emmerich. While I’m not trying to question Fox’s motives, that seems like much stiffer competition for box-office dollars than the Jurassic Park 3D re-release that The Heat originally was going to face in April. Not to mention the fact that fellow summer blockbusters such as Brad Pitt’s World War Z (June 21) and Warner’s Man of Steel (June 14) are still expected to be drawing crowds.

Maybe Feig hasn’t finished The Heat yet and needed more time? We recently posted a red-band trailer for the film, which made it look pretty finished. The other theory is that Fox is so happy with the finished film that they’re confident it can out-perform its summer-movie competition. I’m really hoping that’s the case, because The Heat could bring a very popular genre back to theaters with a vengeance. I choose to believe Bullock and McCarthy are the right ladies for this job. We shall see.

Sean O'Connell
Managing Editor

Sean O’Connell is a journalist and CinemaBlend’s Managing Editor. Having been with the site since 2011, Sean interviewed myriad directors, actors and producers, and created ReelBlend, which he proudly cohosts with Jake Hamilton and Kevin McCarthy. And he's the author of RELEASE THE SNYDER CUT, the Spider-Man history book WITH GREAT POWER, and an upcoming book about Bruce Willis.