With Mulan now having been postponed indefinitely we ask, ‘Now where have all the blockbusters gone?’ Well it seems that Tenet may yet get an August release. Trade paper Variety reports that Warner Bros. Pictures is in talks with international exhibitors about a potential late August date with cinema owners in the U.K., France and Spain under instruction for an August 26th-28th launch. It’s also rumoured that the studio is aiming to release the film early in Asia…….but all this depends on whether the Kung Flu pandemic getting worse. Reports are that Tenet will not be getting a traditional global day-and-date release any longer but the danger here is over piracy and spoilers.
With Summer blockbusters all having been moved to later in the year talk now turn to the Autumn winter schedule and first up would be A Quiet Place 2 a film which we were all set to attend the premiere until the lock down was pulled and its release immediately postponed to early September 2020. Well that’s now been moved from September 4th to an April 23rd 2021 release. Tom Cruise’s long awaited Top Gun sequel which was moved from the summer to a Christmas 2020 date has moved too shifting from December 23rd 2020 to July 1st 2021 – both films are now coming out exactly a year after their original release dates. ….meanwhile Tom has has recommenced shooting on Mission Impossible 7 & 8 which are filming back to back. It leaves Christmas 2020 clear at the moment for Spielberg’s version of West Side Story which remains in its intended release date slot. At the same time Paramount whose “Sonic the Hedgehog” has been one of the years success stories with the film grossing over $306.8 million worldwide (making it the second highest grossing film of 2020 ) has set a date for a sequel for April 8th 2022,
The rumor of the Bond film being moved from November we covered HERE.
So the much anticipated ‘Bill & Ted Face the Music‘ has had a surprise announcement by the studio where the distributor has opted to take both a selected theatrical release in the cinemas that are open as well as also be going the premium video-on-demand route, much like “Trolls World Tour” .
With all the films shuffling their release dates further along the line it’s now impacting on release dates for film as far ahead as Christmas 2021. The first casualty being Avatar 2 which has just started shooting again in New Zealand and will now see its release delayed by another year to Christmas 2022. Interestingly every Christmas until 2028 has Disney block booking alternate releases of Avatar and a new set of Star Wars films as follows.
Dec 16th 2022: “Avatar 2”
Dec 22nd 2023: “Untitled Star Wars Movie”
Dec 20th 2024: “Avatar 3”
Dec 19th 2025: “Untitled Star Wars Movie”
Dec 18th 2026: “Avatar 4”
Dec 17th 2027: “Untitled Star Wars Movie”
Dec 22nd 2028: “Avatar 5”
So occupying Avatar’s Christmas 2021 slot will be Spiderman 3 film which was originally set for a July 16th 2021 but then delayed to November 5th 2021 but will now see a Christmas 2021 date next year and now goes a little over a month later.
So now we know where the blockbusters have gone!
