The Latest Date Changes 2: The New Batch

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Disney's CEO confirmed last week that they have no intention of shifting Black Widow from its planned strictly theatrical release at this juncture. My big unfounded speculative prediction is that they'll stay the course on that unless the COVID situation here in the US doesn't improve enough by the fall (which is obviously well within the realm of possibility) to see theaters return to the degree of normalcy required to sustain a consistent release schedule. If that isn't able to happen, they'll probably drop it on Disney+ so Florence Pugh's new Black Widow has a proper introduction before she shows up in the Hawkeye show that's coming out in December.

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But how many Marvel movies does Disney have awaiting release? Delaying some of them would be like how Paramount keeps delaying A Quiet Place Part II: unnecessary and greedy. Give potential viewers an option instead of having the glimmer of hope that theatres will be at 100% capacity by the end of the year.

Speaking of A Quiet Place Part II, I'm under the belief that John Krasinski should tell Paramount to shove it and leak the film onto torrents. It's better than just continuing to sit on a film that had its premiere nearly a year ago and has had the same trailers out for over a year.

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Black Widow is done, Eternals and Shang-Chi are in post and Spider-Man is very close to completing filming. Even with the onslaught of additional Marvel films they currently have scheduled for 2022 (Thor 4, Ant-Man 3, Black Panther 2, Captain Marvel 2, Doctor Strange 2-which is a lock to get delayed from its March release date due to its ongoing COVID-induced production shutdown in London), Disney can afford to be patient with their release schedule right now-especially with the not entirely unrealistic possibility of theaters re-opening both here and in Europe later in the year.

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Is Black Panther 2 even still happening? Last I read, that was getting a page one rewrite with Shuri becoming the new Black Panther.

But why sit on these movies? Disney is going to be losing interest if they keep delaying instead of sending them to Disney+. I have to imagine the constant delays on Disney and non-Disney product is going to hurt in the long run if they keep waiting instead of going the easy route.

But I guess no one learns anything after the industry tried to make Tenet its savior.

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Black Panther 2 starts filming over the summer. Believe Kevin Feige said recently that Ryan Coogler is just about finished with the script rewrite.

And if you think the demand for Marvel movies has or is going to erode anytime soon-particularly with the series starting to hit Disney+, you're living on another planet. It's the biggest global franchise in the world right now and no amount of past or future delays is going to change that.

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But at this point, do we really care that Black Widow is coming out? The same trailer that makes it look like an Incredibles ripoff has been running for over a year and you have the idiots online who are rooting for it to fail because they want the world to be like a Mad Men episode. The buzz seems to have completely eroded. I'm also convinced the same has happened for No Time to Die and A Quiet Place Part II

Also, of a lot of the movies that were delayed by COVID that did come out, many of them weren't good. I get that you like everything and use half-scores as a excuse to avoid pointing out flaws but the industry has more than a few problems. Nearly every movie now is the same thing: superhero teams fighting some rich guy, Ryan Reynolds playing himself, ghosts attacking some poor family as Jason Blum is too cheap for decent effects, or a remake/reboot/ripoff no one asked for. Even without COVID, 2020 was going to suffer as there just isn't much to get excited about anymore. Sure, Nomadland is getting a wide run on Friday but it's not enough to make us feel good about movies.

If the industry fails, it's not because of a pandemic. It was a double suicide: studios and theatre chains being way too stubborn and unable to change when they needed to the most.

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No clue how commentary on other delayed titles and your issues with me using .5's when I rate movies on here is relevant to this conversation . All I'm saying is that the Marvel titles have elite box office upside and I understand why Disney is holding off on releasing any of them on Disney+ at this juncture.

[W]

Marvel movies are 3 of the 5 biggest movies of all time domestically. And those three all came out in 2018 and 2019. If there's one thing you hold back, it's them. If they make only a fifth of the money sitting on a shelf for two years it's more than anything else you're holding back.

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Warner Bros. finally pushes Reminiscence to Labor Day weekend. I'm getting Transcendence vibes with this one and wouldn't be surprised if this turns out to be a mercy killing for the film.

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As Neon is busy with The World's a Little Blurry, they have pushed The Killing of Two Lovers out of the last week of Oscar qualifying and will now open that one on 5/14/2021.

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Nobody moves up one week to 3/26/2021. At least one other good-looking movie will come out from a studio next month.

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Paramount unveiled today at their big Paramount+ showcase that they'll be sending A Quiet Place II, Mission: Impossible 7 and The Paw Patrol Movie to the streamer after 45 days in theaters and that they intend to release 3-4 original films per year exclusively on the service (initial titles are the recently announced William Eubank/Christopher Landon reboot of Paranormal Activity, a Pet Sematary prequel and a Joey King-led supernatural teen drama called The In Between).

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So they're going to be using Paramount+ as an attempt to best Blumhouse? Kind of a waste, considering how I'm sure those three exclusives will be terrible.

And I have to imagine Tom Cruise will be like Denis Villeneuve was over Dune and try to block those plans on Mission: Impossible.

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Spider-Man: No Way Home will now open on 12/17/2021 and Sony is claiming it will be exclusive to theatres. I guess they have to as they only get a distribution fee on it.

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Bad Trip is getting quietly dumped onto Netflix on March 26th, seemingly years after it was filmed. Also interesting to note that the recently-released poster has left Tiffany Haddish off completely, after MGM's older marketing prominently featured her.