Universal Pictures is keeping Strays in the pound until later this summer.With the studio shifting its untitled Please Don’t Destroy movie from Saturday Night Live writing trio Ben Marshall, John Higgins, and Martin Herlihy out of theaters and onto NBCUniversal streaming service Peacock, the Will Ferrell and Jamie Foxx-starring Strays is moving back onto Destroy‘s date and will now open on August 18th. Until today, the R-rated talking dog comedy from Barb and Star Go to Vista Del Mar director Josh Greenbaum was slated to open only in theaters on June 9th.
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According to Deadline, Universal pushed back Strays from June to mid-August in part because of the ongoing writers’ strike that has halted production on shows and films alike. With late-night TV shows going dark for the duration of the WGA Strike, including NBC’s own Late Night With Seth Meyers and The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon, the raunchy comedy could suffer without promotion in key demos. Strays was close to screening for the press when Universal ordered the delay to August 18th, where it now opens against Warner Bros. and DC’s more family-friendly superhero movie Blue Beetle.
By moving out of a crowded June, Strays avoids opening at a time when theaters will be dominated by Sony’s animated Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse (June 2nd), 20th Century’s Stephen King adaptation The Boogeyman (June 2nd), Paramount’s Transformers: Rise of the Beasts (June 9th), and DC’s The Flash (June 16th). Other adult comedies scheduled to hit theaters that month include Lionsgate’s horror spoof The Blackening (June 16th) and Sony’s Jennifer Lawrence-led sex comedy No Hard Feelings (June 23rd).
Strays, which has been described as “Homeward Bound with drugs and F-bombs,” is what Universal calls “a subversion of the dog movies we know and love.”
When Reggie (Ferrell), a naïve, relentlessly optimistic BorderTerrier, is abandoned on the mean city streets by his lowlife owner,Doug (The Last Man on Earth‘s Will Forte), Reggie is certainthat his beloved owner would never leave him on purpose. But once Reggie falls in with a fast-talking, foul-mouthed BostonTerrier named Bug (Foxx), a stray who loves hisfreedom and believes that owners are for suckers, Reggie finallyrealizes he was in a toxic relationship and begins to see Doug for theheartless sleazeball that he is.
Determined to seek revenge, Reggie, Bug and Bug’s pals — Maggie (Wedding Crasher‘s IslaFisher), a smart Australian Shepherdwho has been sidelined by her owner’s new puppy, and Hunter (Aquaman‘s RandallPark), an anxious Great Dane who’s stressedout by his work as an emotional support animal — together hatch a planand embark on an epic adventure to help Reggie find his way home … andmake Doug pay by biting off the appendage he loves the most. (Hint: It’snot his foot).
Strays opens only in theaters August 18th.
