I think we’ve all seen this coming, but it may finally be happening. According to Variety, Disney/Marvel are planning to move Black Widow off the release schedule, taking one of the biggest films of 2020 off the board.
No new date has been announced for Black Widow yet, but think about the implications if it were to jump to 2021. With Wonder Woman 1984 shuffled off to December, there are no big releases between now and November when No Time to Die arrives. We do get the WW84 and Dune one-two punch in December, but as I’ve said before it’s a distinct possibility all of these films get moved. Even if they don’t, the pickings for this year are very slim.
Furthermore, it’s looking as if Disney might move the upcoming Pixar film Soul over to Disney+. This is a decision they’ve been weighing for a while, as well, recognizing that families aren’t ready to bring their kids back to theaters. This also means Disney must be very happy with the PVOD returns on Mulan, if they’re willing to do it again for a Pixar movie.
Back to Black Widow, it wouldn’t be a shock to see it slide over to February and take the spot currently occupied by Eternals. That would cause a ripple effect across the MCU, and we could see a bunch of projects shift. Stay tuned.
So what happens if studios never again trust releasing a big movie in theaters? COVID isn’t going anywhere, maybe until 2022. After that length of time, will people become so used to watching everything on VOD they don’t even want theatrical?
