Blight on blockbusters
‘Tenet’ delayed; ‘Mulan’ likely, too
The summer moviegoing season is officially dead.
Warner Bros. on Monday said its planned summer blockbuster — the Christopher Nolan spy flick “Tenet” — would be postponed indefinitely due to the spread of the coronavirus, killing any chance of a summer rollout. Disney’s “Mulan” — the only other summer release marked for blockbuster status — is expected to follow suit, industry experts said.
The Hollywood studio, which most recently earmarked “Tenet” for Aug. 12, said it will share a new 2020 release date “imminently.” It also postponed the next installment of its horror franchise, “The Conjuring 3,” to June 4, 2021, from Sept. 11, 2020.
“Unfortunately, the pandemic continues to proliferate, causing us to reevaluate our release dates,” said Toby Emmerich, chairman of Warner Bros. Pictures Group. “Amidst all this continued uncertainty, we have decided to vacate the current dates for our next two releases.”
Warner Bros. originally scheduled “Tenet,” a sci-fi thriller starring John David Washington and Robert Pattinson, for July 17, but pushed the date back to July 31 and then Aug. 12 as the coronavirus pandemic closed movie theaters across the nation.
“The delay is unfortunate, and it means more time without revenue for the industry,” said MKM partners analyst Eric Handler.
Handler said he is now “skeptical” that “Mulan,” Disney’s live-action remake of its animated fantasy film, will premiere as planned on
Aug. 21, although he thinks the Mouse House could still go forward with its premieres in Europe and Asia, where movie theaters are starting to reopen.
Disney, which didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment, could also release “Mulan” direct to its new streaming service Disney+, analysts said.
The Hollywood postponements come as movie theater chains like AMC Entertainment and Regal Cinemas parent CineWorld struggle to survive the pandemic, which has eviscerated ticket sales.
Handler said he now thinks US movie theaters will open in September at the earliest, while Rich Greenfield, an analyst at Lightshed Partners, questioned whether movie theaters will reopen until the pandemic subsides.
“The more you listen to medical experts, there seems to be growing evidence that there’s an aerosol nature to this virus,” he said, adding “it’s not safe to be indoors,” be it movie theaters or offices.”
“The major movie theater chains will probably go into bankruptcy and get smaller,” he said. “It feels inevitable.”