I can’t believe I’m even writing this post. Twelve solid months of excitement. Twelve months of jumping up and down with every Twitter update, twelve months of geeking out with every image, every social media update, and cheering along with the rest of the online G.I. Joe community about the G.I. Joe: Retaliation movie trailers.
Twelve months of intense excitement and motivation, and in one fell swoop, Paramount has stomped on both Hasbro and G.I. Joe fans with one broad stroke. Citing a desire to convert the film to 3D, Paramount has officially announced that they are pushing back the release of G.I. Joe: Retaliation to March 29, 2013. Yes, they apparently made this decision and made this statement just ONE MONTH before the film’s release.
Excitement online has been building, the geek community at large is fired up to see this movie, and I’m sure I speak for many of us when I say this news is crushing.
Already the reaction online is flooding social media, and the reaction is unanimous. It seems as if every ounce of positive energy for this film has been totally snuffed out. Immediate reaction is the film is terrible and they are scrambling to try and salvage something. In my opinion, this move sends a terrible, terrible message.
I’m sure cast, crew, and Hasbro at large are probably all as upset as we are, but I guess that’s Hollywood.
More information on this news as it develops, you can believe that.
Just wow…
This is surely a joke, right?
I even looked at the date of the articles I read and kept making sure it wasn’t April 1st.
We lost out on so much because they were rushing this movie out, and now this? Imagine what we could have had for 30th Anniversary!
I want to say that’s unbelievably stupid, but it’s unfortunately not unbelievable, and stupid doesn’t convey enough insult.
You’re posting blog links. How about some confirmation from John Chu or anyone at Hasbro? I still call BS. The movie is already shipping to theatres, the toys come out in a week. This is too stupid to be true.
I posted a link to MarketWatch, which has direct quotes from Brian Goldner, the CEO of Hasbro. That’s not official enough for you?
Marketwatch is a blog. Owned by the wall street journal, but still a blog. Regardless, arguing on the internet is stupid, we’ll know in a day or two when Hasbro or Paramount issues a press release one way or the other.
It’s a blog that posted an actual press release issued by Paramount. Just hop on the ‘net, there are literally dozens of sites with the official press release with embedded quotes from Goldner about the announcement. Sorry, man, it’s true.
http://investor.hasbro.com/releases.cfm
Please be quiet now.
I stand corrected. Thank you for doing what the OP didnt: finding a valid source that isn’t a blog.
Justin’s point was valid: the blog was QUOTING THE PRESS RELEASE.
Someone clearly doesn’t understand how press releases work.
Plus movies don’t get shipped much nowadays. They are digital. Even if there were hard prints those ship to theatres the day before release not a month ahead of time.
The disaster of Battleship probably made everyone panic
How could they compare Battleship to Gi Joe? It’s a frickin’ movie about a board game with aliens. Who would think that would sell?
Okay, a couple of points:
1. This obviously isn’t going to effect the toyline. Those things are in warehouses right this minute.
2. Well, it isn’t going to effect the toyline in-hand, at least for the first couple of waves. If this doesn’t lead to long, complex litigation between Hasbro and Paramount I’ll be stunned.
3. The 3D conversion is probably, perversely, a sign of faith on Paramount’s part. As it moving it up into an easier part of the summer schedule. If they’re making it 3D, they think it’s going to easily gross enough to justify the conversion.
4. Post-filming conversions generally suck, but Avengers was post-converted and it didn’t look too bad. Then again, I’m guessing Whedon knew about the possibility the entire time and filmed accordingly.
5. However bad a day you think you’re having, people at Hasbro have probably had worse ones. Their summer tentpole line just lost its major multimedia support.
6. I’m not even going to touch on the fact that Renegades was now officially cancelled for literally no reason.
wow this really sucks
More room to market those Dollar General figures 😉 !!!
I hope this is the answer for my previous question: will we see toys during this 10-month delay? (I remember another word…”hiatus”)
FUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUCK!
I agree.
http://i615.photobucket.com/albums/tt234/Wry1_album/FACEPALM.jpg
So then what about the movie related toys!? Everyone already has wave 1 & 2 cases probably in their warehouse. Not to mention Target already has their 30th on clearance! I’m sure Hasbro already has the others being pumped out by the factories.
I wouldn’t mind some store actually getting the later 30th waves. Those only showed up at Toys R Us & Walgreens here.
The toys can’t be pulled back now. And they can’t just toss 30th product out there – it would take months to get into the distribution chain.
Basically, the Retaliation toys are going to land with a thud at market. Get your clearance shopping skills ready; Hasbro’s going to dump these ASAP.
(The more I think about it, the less likely it is that Waves 3 onwards ever see the light of day)
Well considering they have nothing else to market I say wave 3 does make it out.
Which ones were actually movie accurate? Perhaps they will somehow leave those out of the cases?
Everything from Wave 2 onwards is generally movie-accurate, as exemplified by Roadblock.
Remember, no one’s allowed to take pre-orders on Wave 3 just yet. So I’d be less confident in those.
I just heard Hasbro dropped the street date for movie toys. Of course no one in retail will find out. So if they just read the case they still may not stock them.
Toys are my main concern. I’m not worried about the movie line, but about what will go on next: a 10-month delay, what can we expect to see on the pegs?
I just found Wave 1 at my Walmart tonight (I’m in a Dallas suburb), including an all black Cobra Commander.
I imagine that the other toys will come out because retailers have already got their orders in, and the toys are supposed to be made and ready to go.
This all-black CC is a single pack?
Yep. They didn’t even have the blue one. All figures from the first wave were there, $9 each. I went ahead and picked up Storm Shadow, just because I felt he was the best looking figure of all, but I carried CC around for a while before deciding I couldn’t afford to get both.
Wow. I’m not sure where to begin. Why would you spend all that publicity money only to announce a 9 month delay less than a month from the official release? That cost the studio millions. There is no way they will get the return on that investment. What now? The Tank has 161 pages of responses and there are 95 here. What the heck are they going to do with the toys? TF and SW always has a strong following due to the name recognition and the fact that there is always a toon. We’ve pretty much been told that a large media tie in is required to sustain a brand. What in the heck do you do with a bunch of toys for a movie that is now 9 months away? Do you sell them and then having nothing new for the movie? Do you mothball them and hope they sell when the movie comes out? Christmas is a huge toy shopping season and people are paying off bills in the new year. What can we expect in the meantime? A return to the 30th ? Probably not. Renegades season 2? That would be so awesome but probably not. The best we can hope for is Joes from a movie that is 9 months away. How will these not be hitting the bargain bin on contact? TRU is still trying to get rid of ROC product. This will not go over well.
I have never said that I have an inside source of claim that I understand the modern toy or media market but this doesn’t even seem like basic common sense.
Very disappointed. This really looked like it had potential. It still could be great, but this is a bad sign for how Paramount perceives the quality of the movie. February/March is typically when the studios dump their crap. Going 3D might just be an attempt to salvage it.
That’s unfortunately kind of the way I’m seeing it. It almost seems like a conversion to 3D is an excuse for the delay, and not entirely the reason for it. A push back from summer tentpole to March cast off is not a good omen.
Remember, this is an insanely competitive movie summer, and Avengers has already outright sunk one Hasbro-related megamovie (bad pun intended). They’re probably worried about being run over by Spidey, even if the movie’s better than Battleship.
This was my thinking. The Avengers has spiked an interest in superheroes, with Batman’s trailer going over well, so pitting a military action movie against Spider-Man is quite dangerous.
The Deadline post makes it clear that this was more for international markets – China and Russia, specifically. Apparently they aren’t nearly as cynical about 3D as North American (adults) are.
And, once again, I am left wondering if Hasbro knows what it’s doing with G.I. Joe.
Hasbro had roughly 0% to do with this. This is almost assuredly Paramount’s doing. They’re having to pay off their partners in MGM and Skyfall to even pull this off, for instance.
Have fun with the Hasbro guys at JoeCon…
Watch Hasbro won’t even notice the obvious elephant in the room and they will go on and on about their other brands. Then they go to question and answer. They would probably expect a toy question first. Paramount are the real ones people would want to question.
One other point: look at the date. March 29, 2013 – or basically the last available date in Q1 2013.
I assume everyone involved would count Q1 2013 as part of FY 2012. The date is for accounting reasons, so they don’t have to take the writedown this fiscal year.
Amazing. Simply amazing. It does look bad for the movie, I have to say, but worse for the brand. There is no way kids will care about G.I. Zipline without a movie to back it up, I’m afraid. 9 months!? After such a solid and driven media push? Looks like someone at Paramount hates GI Joe as much as NBC hates Community.
Makes me wonder if the film was any good? If they are moving it from the middle of the movie season to the very beginning before the big hitters come out, this must not be a strong film (not that I was expecting much). This isn’t going to be good for the brand after all the cross sell marketing and interviews to get shelved for 9 more months. The product is going to suffer; not that production cuts haven’t already hurt it.
Well, this hampers Hasbro’s chances of developing their GI Joe toy line outside of America quite a bit as they have a big choice to make: warehouse their stock for international release; shunt the existing stock into US retail causing over-stocks; release a movie-related line that has no movie. Luckily, with the limited articulation on some figures, it looks like they haven’t poured too much money into this.
Sucks
Also the timing is interesting because The Rock will probably be wrestling in a major match at next year’s Wrestlemania, which will be held on April 7, 2013. Could be a good opportunity for cross promotion
I can’t recall a time when a studio has delayed the opening of a film this close to it’s release date. It’s an absolutely baffling move by Paramount – at least when they did that with the Star Trek reboot there was plenty of warning, not a matter of weeks notice. I’m sure they’re eyeing up some of that sweet 3D movie money (especially in the foreign markets), but to do so at the expense of ditching a tentpole release this year? Not like they’re making any money off Avengers – their logo is on it, but their buy-out means that’s all they get.
As many have said, the bigger question is what happens to the toyline now. Will further product be held back from release until the release of the film? Will we see the additional time be utilised to create more movie-accurate figures and the like for when the film does finally release? Given the timing of this announcement, there isn’t the lead time for a substitute line to fill the gap and the retailers might not want a substitute line anyway (they’ve ordered Retaliation product, not something unsupported by media). Personally I’d like to see the announced waves come out and then seriously tweak subsequent waves to reflect a change of focus with a relaunch of movie-focused product closer to the time of the film launch, but I think it’s more likely that we’re going to go dark on new Joe releases beyond what’s in stores already…
This literally just ruined my day. Whoever made this decision is a fucking idiot.
Actually this just ruined my summer too
I loved Avengers, and I’m sure I’ll see TDKR, but G.I. Joe was the number 1 movie on my summer’s to-see list. Pretty lame, I just don’t see how they’re going to get people excited all over again for this movie. The buzz about it is happening now, people are wanting to see it now. It’s a big gamble to think that these same people are going to care next summer.
What a kick in the balls. I am tending to agree with other posts that Paramount panicked after Battleship. But then again, that was Battleship – this is freaking GI JOE! They are two completely different things. Who is making the decisions? Did they even live in the 80s and understand what a powerhouse GI Joe was? I mean, I knew it wasn’t going to be an Avengers, or Batman, or Alien, or even a Spiderman, which are all coming out this summer – but it was still a great addition to the summer lineup. And I know that other buddies of mine were psyched to see GI Joe, and these are old guys (like me), and they don’t love GI Joe as much as I do. But they were happy to see it along with the other movies coming out. I saw the Avengers with one of my buddies who like me, played with the same cool toys in the 80s. But he doesn’t collect or anything and likes to see comic movies because they are nostalgic. When we left, he was excited about GI Joe, Batman, Spiderman, and Alien. He didn’t think it looked bad, or needed to be in 3D, all he wanted was to see it. I remember telling my wife how happy I was because people who I never thought would like GI Joe said the trailers looked cool and wanted to see it. When you have to shell out at least $10 for a movie nowadays, that is saying allot.
But it is sad for Hasbro and the toymakers. I am sure the rug was pulled out from under them just like it was for us, but for them, this could have much deeper and serious issues that could effect their job security, and their ability to support themselves and their families. I feel for them…
Then, there is the question about what is to be done with the current toys and orders? I think the posts here and everywhere else speak to the speculation on what will happen. I think they will release what they have ordered, and then go dark until we get closer to the movie. At least they have time to improve on some future waves…
Finally, there is the anger about the cancelled 30th anniversary lines. I could of had Kwinn if they knew about this earlier – not to mention that Renegades is also cancelled (TV and Toyline). That is just a bitter taste and another kick in the balls. Just a kick in the balls…
No kidding man. I had also heard good things from non Joe fans about the movie and there seemed to be a real good hype for it. So much for 2012 being the year of the Joe…
I think this calls for an emergency WOJM
Cancelled my 30th and renegades for what????????????????????????????????????????????? My guess is the joe design team is more pissed than us.
-Chris K
I’m not a movie-goer and I couldn’t care less about Retaliation, but the fallout will be interesting to watch in a rubber-neck kind of way.
A quick message from the WOJM podcast: Let your voices be heard concerning today’s movie news. For our next episode we are going to feature YOUR voicemails. All you have to do is call in and share your thoughts. Please AT LEAST tell us your first name and PLEASE keep your messages no worse than a PG-13 rating. We reserve the right not to air any hostile or vulgar messages. (262) 515-9656
I’ll be calling, Gary….
They better still sell the toys! because this is bad!
Well…I will def be seeing it in 2-D just to stick it to em.
Wow. What a terrible waste. Interviews and press junkets, toyline. I can’t believe Hasbro would let Paramount do it without a lawsuit, cause they screwed the marketing blitz terribly. And didn’t I just read an announcement of the home video release for September?
*Barbecue17 is not a happy panda*
Wow, remember when the joke what whether we would see the Club’s subscription service before the movie? Now it’s a toss up.
I’ve just got one question about this disappointing turn of events. With most movies being released now a days in 3d and Imax 3d, why wasn’t a 3d version planed? I’m thinking A: summer blockbuster, b: big name brand , c: even dark shadows gets the 3d treatment? it would have been a no brainier. I see the Zombie Vipers have invaded Paramount studios and came back hungry.
Some directors don’t like it (Christopher Nolan, in particular, HATES 3D and thankfully swore off it for his movies), and you generally don’t see straight action movies being released in 3D. They usually have to be more effects-driven movies, which Retaliation likely isn’t.
Uncool Paramount.
…okay. Fine. It’s not like I’m super excited for Joes anymore anyway. I don’t know if I can keep paying the new prices, the awesome cartoon was canceled, and now this. Whatever.
Yep.
Didn’t Paramount give GI Joe a summer release date because the Star Trek sequel was falling behind? And now both movies are opening next year.
I’m surprised they didn’t just send it directly to DVD. You don’t waste all of that publicity and promotion money expecting Avatar-sized 3D revenue down the road. Any chance Renegades can get back on the schedule now, or has that ship forever sailed?
I think its safe to say that Renegades is officially dead and that no new GIJOE cartoons will be forthcoming for a couple of years yet (at the earliest). This could even affect the 50th anniversary promotions of the brand name, because if the retailers sour on GIJOE product as a result of Retaliation, then ordering anything from the brand might just wash from this point on.
Hey everybody – cheer up. Here’s Lady Jaye in Maxim (bet they’re regretting the GI Joe mention on the cover, though):
http://theblemish.com/photos/adrianne-palicki-maxim/adrianne-palicki-maxim-01/
Where’s the Arrow? I want to hear his take on this as he’s worked with Hasbro before.
If the movie is really any good, why push it back?
Are they that shaken by the poor box-office of Battleship and that intimidated by the other tent-pole films running around the June 28th release date?? All the hype said this was a “good movie”.
Nope, you push back/delay and augment something that is weak, that you LACK confidence in–and that says this film stinks, that it has serious problems as a whole.
Post-conversion is a bullshit excuse.
Its bullshit because they could have made this assessment a couple of months ago, and go ahead with the plan then. But doing it THIRTY -FIVE DAYS before scheduled release………..no, that’s not a “plan” that’s a desperate gamble.
In my opinion: the next 2 months will be telling us the real story:
If the film is any good……it’d be smart to run a special showing of it at Joecon. Any buzz for the actual film is good buzz. Some select special screenings in certain locales would help too.
If its going to stand on its own, it will.
If its not, then sites like this will catch wind of call-sheets for re-shoots and new material being filmed, and those will have to happen inside of a couple of months. The sets have already been struck for this movie, and the cast have largely moved on to other projects. Adding in major changes….isn’t going to happen–and if the film is bad, its bad in its story execution. There’d not be a great deal that can be fixed there.
You WILL be getting people cornering cast and crew on this, digging for the truth, and the truth will leak. There’s guaranteed sour grapes coming out of this.
If the movie isn’t going to be tweaked at all…..they are just doing the post-convert…….then there’s all the damage this push-back has done. There’s ads running right now, the toys, all kinds of merchandise. Do they pull it all and sit on it??? For 9 more months? Since Hasbro is said to be bankrolling this…..doesn’t this affect their brand? Why would they go along with this? To roll it all back into the cage now, and wait……is it worth the hit, if the film isn’t solid now?
I tellya, 3D formatting isn’t going to improve box-office if the film itself sucks.
The only reason for post-convert here is that theatres charge more per ticket for a 3D film, and so the movie will show a slightly larger box-office.
If the movie is solid……releasing it now, running the post convert as planned and then re-releasing it next March in 3D will still work. The internal logic here suggests that there’s something critical going on, and I think it comes down to the movie itself.
I think its a bomb and Paramount is desperate to polish a turd.
I am normally a pretty even keel and reasonable fan, but WHAT will this do to retail’s waning relationship with the G.I. Joe brand when they do something like this? That is pulling the rug out from under your guest when they walk in the door. The stuff is shipped and waiting for the May 28 release date, only to have NO support?
You know what the real problem is? Looking at the reduced articulation in non-ninja figures, the reduced accessories, the drastically reduced articulation in vehicle drivers, the repaint-heavy vehicle selection and new vehicles like the dragon hawk that use a lot less plastic (though still look pretty badass imo), I think this was a last ditch effort by Hasbro to sell Joes, and Paramount might just have ruined that.
So yeah. Unless the line gets pushed back along with the movie, Paramount may very well have just killed G.I. Joe . . .
You do realize that all the hype and good will the cast has been generating will probably be forgotten by the time March rolls around, right Paramount?
I’ll see the movie when it’s released. The cast and crew deserve that at least. But I refuse to go 3-D. I mean I don’t go for 3-D anyway, but I sure as hell won’t pay the extra cash for it now.
I agree with everything you said. We went from the great 25th and POC lines to this movie line, which varies from pretty good to horrible, and now the whole thing is all out of whack.
Well, it’s been fun.
I too fear it was a last ditch effort to get the kids to buy Joe. Many of those choices have turned off collectors, and with no tie-in (again!) i would have to agree, this may be a deathblow to Joe as we know it. I think Joe will always be around in some form, but an all the time large toyline resembling what we know? more doubtful now.
Hollywood execs = total f*tards. Just watch the TV series episodes, the execs there are total idiots. And while that maybe fictional, it`s likely based on what actually happens in la la land.
Why ppl continue to pay money to watch this sort of trash I will never know.
That’s it–we’re done. This was a mis-fire the ailing brand could not afford.
The only thing that would make me feel a little better after this is if Paramount also announced that they were scrapping plans for a fourth Michael Bay Transformers film.
Definitely not a good sign when an action film starring Bruce Willis and the Rock gets pushed to the spring movie season.
Tomorrow the headlines will be that Paramount has hired Jon Favreau or Joss Whedon to make a G1 Transformers movie?
I bet Paramount didn’t have much faith in the movie with Spiderman opening 5 days later. Movied it to a less crowed time. Probably wise, movie wise for making money. But a little late to make the move considering all the other things in place.
Hasbro is getting screwed. Our beloved GIJoe toyline is getting screwed. We, the fans, are getting screwed.
But this will in fact only push me to buy more Retalliation toys in order to help support the line and Hasbro.
Unfortuantely, no matter what I do, I can never compensate the loss of hundreds of thousands of kids.
Man did Paramount blow this.
Hey, Paramount!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BNsrK6P9QvI
That is all.
Personally, I think it was Battleship and it scared the eff out of Big H, the news was it had one of the WORST openings for a big budget summer movie ever and that film was pretty hyped and had some buzz and it literally got crushed. Just a thought as Joe is sandwiched between two crushing titans in Bats and Avengers, hard to say if Spidey will have an effect as well.
until summer 2013 this flilm???? who was revealed 3D movie appeared!!! goodluck!!!
Fight back! Tell them how you feel! https://www.facebook.com/groups/365834623476457/
.Please like the page and raise awareness. Tell everyone.
https://www.facebook.com/MessageToHasbroStopTheMadnessWithGiJoe
hmmmm
GI JOE was my first love as a kid as far as toys and cartoons are concerned. To say I’m disappointed is an understatement. I can’t believe they would do this. It just seems like a knee-jerk reaction (which unless you’re dodging bullets usually isn’t the best course of action) to Battleship, poor screenings, release date (sandwiched between all the super hero movies, Prometheus, etc.) I for one am stunned they would do this considering I can walk into my local TRU and snag a few Retaliation toys right now. Not to mention being 5 weeks out? I agree, I think they may have just killed GI JOE for the forseeable future which is a shame. However one could argue they killed it when they decided to make it an international fighting force instead of Real American Heroes. That’s what GI JOEs are and that’s what kids want to be- an American hero, not some international peace keeping force.
Turns out, Hasbro and Paramount are just releasing the movie as it was intended – NINJA STYLE, using misdirection and distraction techniques to…uh…kill us. Never mind…
It’s horrible news I’ve ever read! I was disappointing about Scarlett, but THIS …!!! Why they do that!!!!! It’s not right!!!! It’s some stupid joke!!! Who ever did this, he must to burn in Hell!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
This may have killed Joes on shelves, I can’t imagine anything positive happening with the toyline. Every Haitus we have had, i’ve always had other things to do that have kept me entertained, but i’ve always considered stopping too. I really expect a hiatus after 2.
Now I know what it is like to hear that stone fall. Stores were already hardcore about not having the brand in stores. The brand may have just died today. G.I. Joe R.I.P. May 23, 2012.
I would also say this has something to do with Joe Con registration as well, since that included a showing of the movie.
Not cool.
Wow, how often has this happened to a movie? I can think of a couple that were more just legal things that had to get sussed out, but wow. Not cool.
This was most Joe-related thing I was excited about this year.
You have to be kidding me! That’s 9 months of long arduous waiting! After all the hype and excitement what do we get? Nothing.
They should have thought of shooting this in 3D in the first place. What a waste of momentum.
There was so much “End of the Line” yesterday, I thought I was reading Tron blogs!