With Black Adam finally coming to theatres on October 21st, it will make it one of the movies worst affected by Covid-19 delays, having originally been slated for a release at the end of last year. Fans will be hoping that the Dwayne Johnson-helmed Shazam! spin-off lives up to expectations.
With The New Mutants and No Time To Die two other movies that saw long delays from initial production to release for the same reason, it's hard to say if it's a good or bad thing for the movie's prospects. Along with movies like Mad Max: Fury Road and Chaos Walking that saw delays for various other reasons, some titles go an long time between filming and release
The New Mutants (2020)
It's bad enough for a movie to be delayed countless times before finally seeing a release, but it's even worse when the movie then bombs at the box office. Unfortunately, that was the fate of The New Mutants, which stars Maisie Williams, Anya Taylor-Joy, and Charlie Heaton as a new generation of mutants from the X-Men universe.
Having completed filming in 2017 and releasing an incredibly well-received trailer the same year ahead of a slated 2018 release, everything seemed to be going well. That's when the delays began. As summarized by Boston.com, there were delays to deal with schedule conflicts, delays due to Fox's Disney merger, and delays due to the pandemic, and they all contributed to its very late release.
Margaret (2011)
In an extreme case of director/producer conflict, Kenneth Lonergan's epic psychological drama Margaret had to wait 6 years after it completed filming in May 2005 before it was finally released to the background of an ongoing legal battle that's described in The Hollywood Reporter.
According to their summary, the director and producer both wrestled for control of the project as Lonergan struggled to produce a cut he was happy with. Finally, Lonergan's version of the movie received a limited release in 2011 to no shortage of critical praise even as legal proceedings rumbled on regarding who was to foot the bill for the movie's insanely long production process.
No Time To Die (2021)
The 25th James Bond movie turned out to be one of its many success stories after opening to positive reviews and one of the most successful post-pandemic box office weekends, so it's likely many will consider it worth the wait. After some initial production hiccups, sources such as Deadline were reporting that the movie would see a Spring 2020 release after wrapping its shoot in 2019.
Of course, it was just one of a ton of optimistic stories ahead of the Covid-19 pandemic that ended up aging poorly, and it wasn't until late September 2021 that it was finally released. Luckily, it had more than enough memorable 007 action to please the fans who had waited
Jet Pilot (1957)
The details of Jet Pilot, an aircraft-themed Cold War romance directed by Josef von Sternberg and starring John Wayne, in the AFI Catalog paint a picture of an extremely troubled movie. Beginning production in 1950, it wasn't until 7 years later that the movie would see the light of day by which time it was considered dated by a lot of critics.
As a review by Bosley Crowther in The New York Times put it at the time, "WARS have been fought and airplane designs have been improved" in the time between Jet Pilot's filming and its release. Some movies are so timeless that a delay that long wouldn't have mattered, but Jet Pilot certainly wasn't one of them.
Accidental Love (2015)
David O'Russell is a director with an immense reputation having delivered acclaimed movies such as Silver Linings Playbook and American Hustle. What's strange is that, though he worked on both of those features after production began on Accidental Love in 2008, they both came out before the long-delayed and eventually critically-panned romcom was finally released in 2015.
What's also interesting is that his name is not on the movie at all and it is instead credited to Stephen Greene. As reported in The Guardian, O'Russell left and disowned the movie long before it ever saw the light of day, having been at the center of behind-the-scenes drama that would ensure the movie became an almost unwatchable mess.
Mad Max: Fury Road (2015)
When it comes to sequels that were worth the long wait, Mad Max: Fury Road has to be up there with the best having proved that there was still plenty of life in George Miller's chaotic post-apocalyptic Australia. Fans will be hoping they don't have to wait too long for the upcoming Furiosa spin-off.
The movie had already stalled once before as a result of the financial impact of the 9/11 attacks but when The Sydney Morning Herald reported that shooting had finished for the movie in 2013, it was still to be 2 years before it got its release. This was attributed to the studio wanting a prime summer slot for the movie but not wanting to compete with the 2014 FIFA World Cup.
The Other Side Of The Wind (2018)
Even compared to other movies with a long gap between production and release, The Other Side of the Wind is on another level. As reported in Variety, Orson Welles began shooting the Hollywood satire in 1970 and concluded in 1976. Whilst work would continue on and off throughout the 80s, a whole host of legal and financial complications would more or less kill the film.
That's until it was reconstructed and finally given a release in 2018, no less than 48 years after production had begun. The reconstruction was overseen by one of its stars Peter Bogdanovich, who had managed to put together an extensive directorial career himself in the intervening years.
Chaos Walking (2021)
Centered on an intriguing sci-fi premise, which is set on a planet that appears to be composed of only men where everyone can hear each other's thoughts, and starring Tom Holland and Daisy Ridley, Chaos Walking had all the makings of a hit. When the movie's release date was delayed due to extensive reshoots and then the pandemic, as reported in Deadline, things became less hopeful.
Reportedly, the movie was due to be released in March 2019 which would already have put it out two years from when the initial movie shoot was conducted. However, it's obvious that no one quite knew how to rescue a movie that was ultimately panned for its underdeveloped plot and poor pacing as in the end it wasn't until last year that the movie finally came out.
Big Trouble (2002)
A black action-comedy starring Tim Allen and Rene Russo, Big Trouble, unfortunately, happened to have a plotline involving a bomb set to explode aboard a plane. This would have been fine except that the movie was scheduled to release in the Fall 2001 season when the very recent 9/11 attacks meant such a movie could have been perceived as horribly insensitive.
Along with Collateral Damage starring Arnold Schwarzenegger, its release date was pushed back, and the movie remained unreleased for a year. As Hollywood.com noted, this move ended up not working out for either movie as both went on to flop at the box office regardless.
Black Adam (2022)
When Dwayne Johnson finally dons the iconic outfit of the immensely powerful Black Adam, it will have been a long time coming. Though filming didn't conclude until last year, as reported by ComicBook.com, making it a much smaller gap than other examples, that's only because filming itself was delayed for so long.
As late as 2019, Empire were reporting that the movie was to shoot in 2020 and be released the next year. Of course, the pandemic ended up getting in the way and fans are still anxiously awaiting the release of the movie today. If the movie does release in October, then it will be able to avoid becoming one of the worst pandemic delays but that remains to be seen.