Disney pulls Ryan Reynolds’ Free Guy from its schedule

Disney has delayed two of its biggest (and final) 2020 movies, moving them to who-knows-when. Will they follow Mulan’s lead and go straight to streaming?

Here’s news you probably knew was coming: Free Guy, the movie where Ryan Reynolds plays an NPC in a Grand Theft Auto-like video game menaced by the uncaring whims of the player, has been pulled from its release date of December 11. And this after it was initially pushed back from a July release date.

Disney also delayed Kenneth Branagh’s Agatha Christie adaptation Death On The Nile, which was going to come out on December 18. The coronavirus won’t be happy until all the movies scheduled to release this year are off the schedule.

When will Free Guy come out now? We don’t know; Disney has just pulled the movie from its schedule without setting a new date. Maybe it’ll come out next year, or maybe it’ll follow Mulan’s lead and hit Disney+ at some point.

Speaking of Mulan, that movie will be out on 4K, Blu-Ray and DVD on November 10, just around the corner. Disney’s decision to release that movie straight to streaming was controversial, especially among theater chains who lost out on revenue, but as the coronavirus pandemic wears on, studios are running out of options.

Some movies have come out in this period, most notably Christopher Nolan’s spy thriller Tenet, which has done pretty good box office since releasing in theaters in September, raking in about $350 million worldwide. Nolan is “thrilled” with that outcome, but is unhappy with how Hollywood at large has reacted.

“I am worried that the studios are drawing the wrong conclusions from our release,” he told the Los Angeles Times, “that rather than looking at where the film has worked well and how that can provide them with much needed revenue, they’re looking at where it hasn’t lived up to pre-COVID expectations and will start using that as an excuse to make exhibition take all the losses from the pandemic instead of getting in the game and adapting — or rebuilding our business, in other words.”

Of course, you could argue that moving movies to streaming is “adapting,” but clearly not everyone in the industry sees it that way.

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