Lionsgate Sets KICK-ASS For April 16th, 2010; Moves THE EXPENDABLES To August!

Just a few minutes ago, Christopher Mintz-Plasse tweeted along the news that Lionsgate has settled on a release date for Matthew Vaughn's much-anticipated KICK-ASS. April 16th, 2009! This checks out with Lionsgate's official Twitter feed (which I wasn't following prior to a minute ago), which also announced that Sylvester Stallone's all-star action extravaganza, THE EXPENDABLES, has moved from April to August 20th, 2010.

Both moves make sense to me. KICK-ASS is a modestly-budgeted franchise starter that could catch fire in a non-competitive April, when comic book fans will be looking for some superhero action to tide them over until IRON MAN 2. And THE EXPENDABLES feels like that perfect, end-of-the-summer blast that should play strongly through Labor Day weekend - if it's as insane and wonderful as I think it's going to be.

The biggest April opening on record is 2009's FAST AND FURIOUS, which did a healthy $70 million. As for films opening in the middle of the month, SCARY MOVIE 4 scored $40 million over the April 14th weekend in 2004, while THE SCORPION KING somehow raked in $36 million over the April 19th frame in 2002. KICK-ASS will be speeding its way toward profit if it throws up an opening weekend number anywhere in this range.