Mike Fleming

EXCLUSIVE: 20th Century Fox and New Regency are moving the Shawn Levy-directed comedy The Internship up three weeks to a June 7, 2013 berth. Summer 2013 is going to be brutal, and the studio saw a sliver of daylight to come out as the first original comedy of the summer, two weeks after The Hangover Part III. The film, which reteams the stars of Wedding Crashers, is now out of the way of the Channing Tatum/Jamie Foxx action drama White House Down, as well as Kick-Ass 2: Balls To The Wall, the Brad Pitt-starrer World War Z, The Lone Ranger, and it moves ahead of End Of The World and Man Of Steel. At the same time, the film opens right after most college students are out of school, and is up against the Will Smith/Jaden Smith film After Earth by director M. Night Shyamalan, which will likely have a different audience. As for historical precedent, the comedies The Hangover, You Don’t Mess With The Zohan and Knocked Up each came out the first week of June, scored big opening weekends en route to sizeable grosses. So unless someone else moves to that weekend, it seems like sound strategy from Fox and Regency.