Box Office Smackdown: Brad Pitt's 'World War Z' to Open Against Johnny Depp's 'Lone Ranger'

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Brad Pitt, left, and Johnny Depp

The zombie war will begin on Dec. 21, 2012 and it could be a blood-letting at the box office.

Paramount has dated World War Z, which it describes as a geo-political thriller, to open four days before Christmas Day. The move puts the Bratt Pitt movie on a collision course with Disney’s The Lone Ranger, starring Johnny Depp and Armie Hammer, as well as Fox’s Tobey Maguire drama Life of Pi. And it’s only a week after the release of Peter Jackson's The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey, which opens Dec. 14.

But the Christmas holiday has proven to be the most lucrative time of the year, with the market able to support multiple films.

World War Z, currently in production, is being directed by Marc Forster and adapts Max Brook’s novel World War Z: An Oral History of the Zombie War. The movie stars Pitt, Mireille Enos, Daniella Kertesz, James Badge Dale and Matthew Fox.

The studio says the “story revolves around United Nations employee Gerry Lane (Pitt), who traverses the world in a race against time to stop the Zombie pandemic that is toppling armies and governments and threatening to decimate humanity itself.”