‘Black Widow’ Is ‘Likely’ Getting Postponed Again
Thanos ain’t got nothing on the coronavirus.
With movie theaters coming off another disappointing weekend at the box office, it looks like we’re on the verge of yet another batch of blockbuster postponements and delays. Already, we’ve seen Wonder Woman 1984 pushed back to Christmas, and Candyman bumped to 2021.
According to Variety, Disney’s two big fall movies could be next. They say Marvel’s first movie since last summer, Black Widow, is “likely” to move from its November 6 release date, while Pixar’s next animated feature Soul could be headed to Disney+ in an arrangement similar to the $29.99 “Premier Access” release they just gave to the live-action remake of Mulan.
Speaking of Mulan, while it went straight to VOD in the U.S., it did play overseas theaters where the coronavirus is spreading less extensively. And... its performance is apparently not inspiring Disney to focus energy on theatrical releases in the near future:
Disney’s live-action “Mulan” did little to instill confidence in the viability of movie theaters. The fantasy epic arrived below expectations in China, a market that the studio was counting on to deliver robust ticket sales. Though it opened at No. 1 on box office charts, it only collected a muted $23 million during its initial weekend.
The Marvel Cinematic Universe has become one of Disney’s biggest financial assets in the last few years — but here is where it could become a liability. Every single delay to Black Widow, which was originally scheduled to debut in the spring of 2020, pushes back every other MCU movie that follows it, because these things can’t be released out of order. And the movies are such big investments, it would be very difficult for them to earn back their budgets, even with a successful VOD release. Eventually, the delays could also affect the MCU TV shows scheduled to debut in the near future on Disney+. We’re gonna need the Time Stone to sort all this out before too long.
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