This week's round of new movie release information includes the announcement of a big screen adaptation of The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe, and new dates for Surviving Christmas and The Polar Express among many, many others. If you hear of a change in date, please email us at releases@the-numbers.com.

Walking Tall - New date: April 2, 2004 - Previously: April 9, 2004
Fans of Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson can celebrate having to wait one week less than expected to see his new movie. Can he further his bid to become the replacement for Arnie the movie world has been looking for? We just have 5 more weeks before we find out.

Breakin' All the Rules - New date: May 14, 2004 - Previously: April 30, 2004
Some counter-programming for the weekend that will inevitably be dominated by Troy.

De-Lovely - New date: June 25, 2004 - Previously: July 2, 2004
We think MGM is still putting this biopic of Cole Porter into limited release. Either way, it'll be appearing in theaters a week earlier than previously announced.

Garden State - July 30, 2004 (First announced date)
Fox Searchlight starts to line up its Summer schedule with an announcement on this drama, going into the midst of the mid-Summer madness.

Exorcist: The Beginning - August 20, 2004 (First announced date)
After the surprising success of the the original's re-release in 2000, it was only a matter of time before Warner Bros brought the franchise back, this time for a pre-quel. One wonders if there's still life in the formula.

Man-Thing - New date: September 3, 2004 - Previously: August 27, 2004
Artisan pushes this one back a week...

A Sound of Thunder - New date: September, 2004 - Previously: August 20, 2004

The Cookout - New date: September 3, 2004 - Previously: August, 2004
...and goes head-to-head with sister company Lions Gate.

The Ringer - November 5, 2004 (First announced date)
Interestingly, Fox Searchlight are releasing this a week before The Ring 2.

Surviving Christmas - New date: November 12, 2004 - Previously: November 19
Dreamworks pull Surviving Christmas into the "But it's nowhere near Christmas yet!" slot. Clearly they're hoping this one will have good legs - it would be embarassing if it dropped out of the top 10 3 weeks before the Holidays, after all.

The Polar Express - New date: November 19, 2004 - Previously: November 12
Warner Bros.' family movie for the Holidays gets pushed back a week. While Polar Express is aimed at a slightly different demographic than Surviving Christmas, clearly Warners and Dreamworks don't want to go head-to-head with similar family-friendly faire.

Because of Winn-Dixie - New date: January 14, 2005 - Previously: August 13, 2004

The Chronicles of Narnia - Christmas, 2005 (first announced date)
With J.R.R.Tolkein's fantasy epic having pulled in $3 billion in worldwide box office, there's no surprise that Buena Vista has taken the plunge and put the works on Tolkein's friend C.S.Lewis on the fast track. (Maybe they're ruing the fact that Miramax passed on financing the whole Lord of the Rings franchise, and allowed the rights to go to New Line?) But can Disney do for Narnia what Jackson did for Middle Earth? We have nearly two years to speculate on that before we get to find out...

Bruce Nash, releases@the-numbers.com

Source: Variety, Exhibitor Relations and The Hollywood Stock Exchange
Date posted: 2004-03-05