Disney has delayed seven of its 2021 20th Century and Searchlight releases, all former Fox movies, in light of the continued coronavirus pandemic. The move follows a similar decision by Sony, which delayed five of its major releases on Thursday. Disney acquired a number of in-progress projects when it bought the former studio, cancelling some but choosing to release others, like The New Mutants and Ryan Reynolds' upcoming video game comedy Free Guy, under its newly formed 20th Century studios banner.
Disney also acquired a number of smaller budget independent movies from the studio, like the Will Ferrell-Julia Louis Dreyfus comedy Downhill and the Oscars front runner Nomadland, all of which are being released under the Searchlight Pictures banner, formerly Fox Searchlight. A number of the upcoming former Fox releases were delayed from 2020 into 2021 due to the coronavirus pandemic, which has forced theaters all over the U.S. and the globe to shut down. Now, a number of those former Fox movies have been delayed yet again.
Per Variety, three movies under the 20th Century banner have been delayed by Disney. The King's Man has been pushed back from March 12 to August 20, animated movie Ron's Gone Wrong moves from April 23 to October 22, and the much-anticipated Bob's Burgers movie has been removed from the release schedule entirely. Additionally, four Searchlight Pictures movies have been delayed, with horror thriller The Night House moving to July 16, real-life drama The Eyes of Tammy Faye to September 24, supernatural horror Antlers to October 29. Guillermo Del Toro's Nightmare Alley, which features an all-star cast including Bradley Cooper, Cate Blanchett, Willem Dafoe, Toni Collette, and Rooney Mara, moves to December 3.
This news, along with Sony's delays, as well as the news that Daniel Craig's final James Bond outing, No Time To Die, is moving to October 8, is further proof of the dire state of the movie business at the moment. So far, it seems as if 2021, or the first half at least, is going to be as bad as 2020 was for the industry. These delays are unlikely to be the last to be announced, with rumors already swirling that Disney's next big Marvel Cinematic Universe movie Black Widow will be the next to get pushed back.
At this point, it seems as though Warner Bros. will be the only studio to release major movies into theaters during the first half of 2021, and even those releases will be diluted for theaters, thanks to the studio's decision to drop all of those films on HBO Max on the same day. Disney also has the option to release its movies on its streaming service, Disney+, though based on today's news, the media giant seems to be determined to stick to the traditional theater-first experience.
Source: Variety