STX has delayed the release date for its Dave Bautista-headlined action-comedy My Spy a second time, pushing it back from January to March 2020. Having made the transition from professional wrestler to big screen star, the Guardians of the Galaxy actor is currently in the process of expanding his portfolio of work. And though he’s mostly stuck to action films so far, Bautista proved he has the chops to be a serious dramatic actor with his performance in Blade Runner 2049, and will appear in director Denis Villeneuve’s Dune around this time in 2020.
That’s not to say he’s above doing silly comedies now - far from it. Case in point: his next film, My Spy, stars Bautista as JJ, a hard-edged CIA operative who’s blackmailed into teaching 9-year old Sophie (Chloe Coleman) the trick of his trade, after she busts him for surveilling her family. The movie has already seen its release date delayed once, when it was pushed back from August 23, 2019 to January 10, 2020. Now, it’s been shifted back once more.
My Spy has officially moved back (again) from its previous January 10 date to March 13, 2020, instead. It will take the spot recently vacated by Godzilla vs. Kong, which Warner Bros. has since delayed all the way to November of next year.
A relatively new company (it was founded in 2014), STX has struggled to gain a foothold in Hollywood up to this point. It hasn’t been all bad news, of course; since they started, they’ve released such acclaimed films as The Gift, The Edge of Seventeen, and Molly’s Game, and have a potential contender in this year’s awards season thanks to September’s Hustlers (which was also a commercial success). Problem is, they’ve produced far more movies that disappointed either critically and/or commercially than hits, including 2019’s UglyDolls, Poms, and most recently 21 Bridges. This weekend’s Playmobil: The Movie, which STX is distributing stateside, is similarly expected to do little damage at the box office.
It’s probably safe to say My Spy won’t be the film that “saves” STX, considering the trailer makes it look like a harmless, but otherwise disposable piece of family-friendly fluff. Even so, thanks to Bautista’s star-power and its modest budget, it has the potential to turn a profit for them, assuming it doesn’t get wiped out by the competition. Godzilla vs. Kong’s shift away from March creates a decent opening for My Spy there, though it will have to do battle with Pixar’s Onward (which will also be targeting the families with kids) during the latter’s second week of release. Bautista’s action-comedy is unlikely to win that match, but it may manage to put up a proper fight.
Source: STX
- My Spy Release Date: 2020-04-17
