This certainly isn’t the first time that a movie has been dropped by a studio late in the game.
It’s a surprising move, and hopefully we’ll learn soon just why Lionsgate decided it didn’t want this movie as part of its catalog anymore.
The difference between Paddington 2 and Gotti, though, is that the former isn’t set to hit the U.S. until January 12, i.e. there were several months to spare, whereas the latter was dropped less than two weeks before release.
As a recent example, Paddington 2 (which has already been released in the United Kingdom) was initially supposed to be distributed in the United States by The Weinstein Company and Dimension Films, but after the Harvey Weinstein scandal broke, Heyday Films and Studio Canal, the sequel adventure starring the lovable bear from across the pond was moved to Warner Bros by mid-November.