Ghostbusters: Afterlife and other movies delayed over the Delta variant

Lots of movies have been delayed over the past year and change as the coronavirus has shaken up the theater industry, and we’re not out of the woods. The Hollywood Reporter has it that Paramount are Sony are switching things up for three of their big upcoming releases, starting with Ghostbusters: Afterlife.

The Ghostbusters sequel was going to drop into theaters on November 11, but will be pushed back by a week to November 19. That’s not that big of a jump, but November 19 was when Paramount was going to drop Tom Cruise’s new film Top Gun: Maverick. Now, that movie is getting delayed all the way to May 27 of 2022, Memorial Day weekend. And that was originally going to be when Paramount’s other big Tom Cruise movie — Mission: Impossible 7 — landed in theaters; not it won’t drop until September 30 of 2022.

COVID-19 is still  messing with movie schedules

I’m sure there are plenty of Hollywood executives who were hoping that this delay game was going to be over by now, but with the Delta variant of the coronavirus raising fresh concerns about gathering in indoor spaces, it’s still a very real consideration.

Still, there are other studios that are holding their ground. Disney is still releasing Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings tomorrow, and Warner Bros. is still planning to drop Dune into theaters on October 22. Of course, both of those studios have popular streaming services — Disney+ and HBO Max respectively — where they can still get the movie out to a lot of people even if they don’t want to go to theaters. (Dune will drop on HBO Max on October 22, but it’ll be a while before Shang-Chi shows up on Disney+.) Paramount has a streaming service too, Paramount+, but it’s not as big as the others and may not afford the studio with the same flexibility.

Basically, everyone’s figuring it out as they go! That includes us. If you go to the theaters, be safe.

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