Paramount, in reshuffling their entire release calendar, has moved the debut of STAR TREK from Dec. 25 to May 8, 2009, VARIETY reports.
The studio said the moneymaking potential for the highly anticipated J.J. Abrams flick will be much higher in the summer, where it has no competition yet.
Industrial Light & Magic is doing the vfx for STAR TREK under the supervision of Roger Guyett, and that Paramount is also pushing back THE CURIOUS CASE OF BENJAMIN BUTTON from Nov. 26 to Dec.19, with Digital Domain handling the vfx.
Paramount spokesman Michael Vollman told THE HOLLYWOOD REPORTER, "STAR TREK is moving to summer because it has so much box office potentialIt does not need any script tweaks. They're two-thirds of the way through shooting, and we would have delivered a great movie at Christmas."
STAR TREK will likely face competition from X-MEN ORIGINS: WOLVERINE (20th Century Fox), set to open May 2, and Sony's ANGELS AND DEMONS, scheduled for May 16.
Other titles' release dates include DreamWorks' comedy TROPIC THUNDER (starring Ben Stiller) to Aug. 15, 2008 and Martin Scorsese's SHUTTER ISLAND (starring Leonardo DiCaprio) on Oct. 2, 2009.
Similar reviews of the release calendar will be held by other distributors following the end of the writers' strike Tuesday.
