Summer Ended Before It Began
In a move sure to be copied by everyone else in town, Sony had bravely stepped forward to be the first studio to give up completely on the dysfunctional 2020.
The Pebbles
With the prospect of movie theaters staying closed until at least July, studios have moved around some of their blockbusters, including:
- Wonder Woman 1984 moved from June 5th to August 14th
- In the Heights, an adaptation of Lin-Manuel Miranda’s musical, moved from June 26 to on hold indefinitely
- Scoob, an animated film based on Scooby-Doo characters, moved from May 15th to on hold indefinitely
- Black Widow, the second female Marvel superhero movie, is on hold indefinitely
- Fast 9, the latest in the The Fast & The Furious franchise, is on hold indefinitely
- No Time to Die, aka James Bond 25, is on hold indefinitely
- A Quiet Place 2 is on hold indefinitely
The Avalanche
Sony’s date shuffling is likely going to lead to a major cascade of rescheduling throughout the industry as Hollywood reacts to the unprecedented #RealityCanceled event caused by the deadly Communist Cough.
It’s just simple math that all movies will need to be pushed back to make accommodations for three months of no asses in seats.
So, it’s a pretty big deal.
Sony’s New Release Schedule
- Fatherhood – 10/23/2020 from 1/15/2021
- Peter Rabbit 2: The Runaway – 1/15/2021 from 08/07/2020
- Ghostbusters: Afterlife – 03/05/2021 from 07/10/2020
- Morbius – 03/19/2021 from 07/31/2020
- Uncharted – 10/8/2021 from 03/05/2021
Also affected is Tom Hanks’ Greyhound, which moves from June 12th to off the schedule. Since the WWII boat movie cost around only $50 million to make, Sony might just dump Greyhound early on VOD in order to throw its marketing dollars behind a potentially more profitable movie.
I’m willing to bet a lot of less expensive movies start going to straight home entertainment to prevent a massive traffic jam of features once theaters do open.
Strangely enough, there was an Untitled Sony Marvel scheduled for release on October 08th, 2021, which has now been put on hold indefinitely.
I wonder what movie that was — maybe Spider-Man 3?
The October 2nd, 2020 release date for Venom 2 has so far not been altered.
Which makes one alien symbiote very happy…
