Could Wonder Woman 1984 Move Release Dates Again?
The latest ax has fallen from Warner Bros. Picture with their feature film release schedule, and a [...]
The latest ax has fallen from Warner Bros. Picture with their feature film release schedule, and a major question mark is lingering: Is Wonder Woman 1984 going to change release dates again? The highly anticipated sequel has been pushed back multiple times by the studio already, jumping from its June 5, 2020 release to August, then to October, and now finally to December 25. Earlier this evening the studio pushed back almost all of their DC movies around six months apiece, delaying films like The Batman into 2022, Shazam! Fury of the Gods into 2023, and pulling Black Adam from the schedule entirely.
So will Wonder Woman 1984 move once again? As of this writing, it's unclear, but frankly things don't look good. Beyond Warner Bros. own release date shuffling, there are a variety of other factors at stake. Among them is if there will even be movie theaters open to play the sequel if it were to be released at Christmas time.
Earlier today came the news from Cineworld, who announced that all of its locations in the U.K., as well as every Regal Cinemas location in the U.S., would be closing its doors once again. This came in response to dwindling ticket sales following the muted release of Tenet and the recent announcement that the 25th James Bond movie, No Time to Die, was being delayed until next spring. There's also the report that the AMC Theatres chain could run out of cash in six months.
In an interview about the potential for re-opening with Wonder Woman 1984 on Christmas Day, Cineworld CEO Mooky Greidinger said that it would be something they'd consider but only if it came with the promise of additional new releases top follow
"For sure, but we need to have a clear lineup of movies after that," Greidinger said. "It cannot be one movie only. It needs to be a situation that the studios are saying, 'It is safe enough to go back and this is our release schedule.' The COVID situation needs to stabilize and we need to have a clear schedule of movies ahead."
Luckily for Greidinger there is a stable of movies set to be released in the weeks after Christmas Day, but frankly no studio release schedule is solid as a rock these days. Studios continue to shift and change their plans on an almost weekly basis, with Sony Pictures delaying movies before WB tonight and Universal pushing some back last week.
All of this talk of Wonder Woman 1984 hitting its Christmas date is also assuming that the coronavirus pademic will get better in some form in the time between now and then. Speaking an online panel in mid-September, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases Dr. Anthony Fauci said that the fall and winter months could be a hard time for the people of the United States.
"We need to hunker down and get through this fall and winter because it's not going to be easy," Fauci said (H/T Web MD). "What I would like to see is keeping the lid on it, keeping the baseline down, until we get a vaccine. I think that's the thing that turns it around."
All these things in mind, if Warner Bros. was already planning another release date change for Wonder Woman 1984 it seems like they would have announced it tonight with all of their other delays and shifts. Though it's worth noting that they have over eleven weeks left before Christmas, giving them plenty of time to change the date once again as they see fit.
Check back here for further updates on Wonder Woman 1984's release date as we learn them.
