MISSION: IMPOSSIBLE 5 Moved Up To July 2015 Release

I was talking with a friend yesterday about our most anticipated films of the year, and when checking out a release calendar to remember all of the movies coming out this year, I realized when I got to December that I had completely forgotten a new Mission: Impossible movie is coming out in 2015. But Paramount has just decided to move M:I 5 from its December 25th release up to July 31st, 2015, so we can expect the marketing blitz to begin in the near future, insuring that nobody else forgets about the movie any time soon.

Presumably, the studio shifted the release date to avoid what's sure to be a record-setting box office performance by J.J. Abrams' Star Wars: The Force Awakens, and considering Abrams is producing M:I 5, the move makes sense. Tom Cruise should be a big enough draw to pull audiences in when the film faces off against Jake Gyllenhaal's boxing drama Southpaw and the remake of Point Break. Paramount slotted its animated film Monster Trucks in M:I 5's old December release spot, which is a better counter-programming tactic than having Ethan Hunt and his team face off against a Star Wars movie.

We don't know much about Mission: Impossible 5 at the moment (which is actually kind of refreshing), but Tom Cruise, Simon Pegg, Ving Rhames, and Jeremy Renner will all star in the follow-up to the well-liked Ghost Protocol, so hopefully writer/director Chris McQuarrie will be able to deliver something as entertaining as Brad Bird did last time around.