In what sure feels like another desperate move to keep Ant-Man from being a flop, Marvel and Disney announced today that an extended preview of the film will play in IMAX theaters this weekend before Jurassic World.
The studio announced that six minutes of the film will be shown in IMAX 3D before the Universal film.
It’s a surprising move - linking a film to a rival studio’s release - but since Jurassic World could be the first mega-blockbuster since Avengers: Age of Ultron, it’s clearly a strategic one. Plus, both films have pretty much the same audience.
Ant-Man has felt a little bit like the odd duck in the Marvel Cinematic Universe, especially ever since Edgar Wright left and Peyton Reed was picked to direct. In fact, even though the movie comes out next month, it wasn’t until April that the film finally got its first full length trailer. And just to make sure you remember that this is a Marvel movie, the studio actually released a TV spot that includes footage of characters not in the movie.
The film stars Paul Rudd as Scott Lang, a third enlisted by Hank Pym (Mark Douglas) to steal back his Ant-Man technology. Evangeline Lilly and Corey Stoll co-star. The film hits theaters on July 17.
Ant-Man is expected to appear in Captain America: Civil War.
screenshot from Marvel YouTube Video