Movies are packing up from scheduled release dates and pushing back as a result of coronavirus fears preventing gatherings, such as attending a movie in a theater. No Time To Die moved back to November. A Quiet Place Part II is delayed indefinitely. The ninth Fast & Furious movie jumped from late May to next year. Now, all eyes are on Black Widow. The first Marvel Studios film in the post-Infinity Saga era of the Marvel Cinematic Universe is scheduled to be released on May 1. Meanwhile, its universe-sharing TV title The Falcon and The Winter Soldier put a complete halt on production. While Black Widow is done filming, the possibility of moving it back remains.
As for whether or not Black Widow moves its release date, Disney will have its eyes on the opening weekend of Mulan. The film is currently scheduled for release on March 27. Assuming it keeps that date, its box office performance will be a big factor in whether or not Disney moves Black Widow back from May 1. Still, it does not seem unlikely for Mulan to move away from March 27, seeing as films scheduled for release both before and after it have already packed their bags. This is looking at it from a business perspective, as the goal for the studio is to sell as many tickets as possible. In this case, Disney will also have to take into account the safety of moviegoers and theater employees — a decision which some state governments or movie theaters might make for them.
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Black Widow does have the benefit of being more than six weeks away from its release. There is plenty of time for the dangers of the coronavirus to get under control and gathering be ruled safe again. It goes without saying, Disney’s decision to either move Black Widow from its release date or not will depend on the state of the world as it gets closer.
Currently, there is little reason to believe Black Widow will not move its release date.
At that point, the question is how far will it move back? Marvel’s release schedule is intricately planned with titles intentionally slated for certain months and storytelling being written for the interconnected Marvel Cinematic Universe to be laid out with Disney+ showss, as well. With Eternals slated for November and Shang-Chi slated for February, Black Widow moving its date seems like it could simply be the first domino to fall for Marvel Studios — something the studio certainly hopes to avoid.
Still, it would be one of the films with the latest release date from the time of this article’s publishing to move. All titles which have moved their release dates back had been scheduled for March or April, save for Fast 9. Feel free to leave your thoughts about whether or not Black Widow will change its release date in the comment section or send them my way on Instagram and Twitter.
Black Widow is currently set for release on May 1.
