Sony Pushes 'Robocop' to 2014, Moves 'Elysium' to Summer 2013

Sony/TriStar is relocating Neill Blomkamp's Elysium -- the follow-up to the director's District 9 -- from March 1 to Aug. 9.

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The sci-fi epic, set on a space station occupied by the very wealthy while the rest of humanity lives on a ravaged, overpopulated Earth, headlines Matt Damon, Jodie Foster and Sharlto Copley.

In its new summer home, Elysium opens on virtually the same weekend on which sleeper hit District 9 debuted in 2009 on its way to grossing $210 million worldwide.

Elysium takes the spot previously held by Robocop, which Sony and MGM are pushing back to Feb. 7, 2014. The remake, directed by Jose Padilha and starring Joel Kinnaman in the title role, is still in production, and the switch-up will allow more time for postproduction and visual effects, though that wasn't the reason for the move.

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The studio also announced it will open Cloudy With a Chance of Meatballs 2 on Sept. 27, roughly the same weekend that 3D toon Hotel Transylvania opened this year, transforming into a box-office hit for Sony Pictures Animation. Transylvania has grossed north of $151 million to date.

Separately, Sony is taking Happy Madison's Pixels off the 2014 calendar. The CGI/live-action hybrid, the feature version of a French short about the invasion of New York City by an 8-bit video game, is still in development.