With the movie industry still struggling due to the COVID-19 pandemic, it looks like Disney may be making changes to its schedule yet again.
To say the movie industry has been struggling since the COVID-19 pandemic began is an understatement, and even now that theaters have begun reopening around the world, things are far from back to normal. New releases like The New Mutants and Tenet have had difficulty making anywhere near the box-office figures considered successful prior to shutdowns.
Warner Bros. appears to be dealing with Tenet‘s less-than-ideal opening in the U.S. by keeping the film in theaters as long as possible…and eliminating the competition. The studio already bumped Wonder Woman: 1984 back again, likely anticipating that the film would face the same issues as Tenet. And really, it wouldn’t be surprising. It doesn’t seem moviegoers are prepared to head back to theaters just yet. (Plus, there are parts of the country where theaters still aren’t even open.)
With the Wonder Woman sequel out of the way, Black Widow is the next huge blockbuster slated to hit theaters this year, currently holding a November 6 release date. According to Variety, however, Disney may be rethinking that timeline. And given the Wonder Woman delay, it really wouldn’t be surprising if the other big superhero flick of 2020 saw an indefinite delay too.
Black Widow isn’t the only movie Disney is rethinking. Pixar’s new movie Soul is also slated to arrive in November, but it’s looking more and more likely that it will follow in Mulan‘s footsteps and be pushed straight to Disney+. (If it also follows Mulan‘s lead with the $30 premium pricing, however, it may have been better off sticking to its theatrical release….)
Everything is up in the air with release dates, and although Disney has yet to make anything official, things aren’t looking good for moviegoers, movie theaters, or movie studios. Birds of Prey and The New Mutants could very well be the only superhero movies we see in 2020, because despite fans’ pleas, Disney doesn’t seem to be pushing for Black Widow to move straight to Disney+.
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