Tom Cruise's TOP GUN: MAVERICK & Christopher Nolan's TENET Unlikely To Hit Theaters As Scheduled

Tom Cruise's TOP GUN: MAVERICK & Christopher Nolan's TENET Unlikely To Hit Theaters As Scheduled

While both Top Gun: Maverick and Tenet are currently still on the theatrical release schedule, it's starting to look increasingly unlikely that either movie will make it to the big screen this summer.

By RohanPatel - Apr 01, 2020 08:04 AM EST
Filed Under: Action
Source: Variety

With several major titles, including Marvel's Black Widow, Universal's Fast & Furious 9, Warner Bros.' Wonder Woman 1984, Universal's Minions: The Rise of Gru, Sony's Ghostbusters: Afterlife, and Sony/Marvel's Morbius, all shifting out of their summer release dates, the 2020 summer movie season has been essentially hanging on by a thread, anchored by Paramount's Top Gun: Maverick and Warner Bros.' Tenet.

However, based on current events and the unresolved nature of the coronavirus pandemic, Variety strongly believes those two high profile action blockbusters led by Tom Cruise (Mission: Impossible) and Christopher Nolan (The Dark Knight), along with Disney's Jungle Cruise, will inevitably be forced to push heir release dates back to later in the year or even into 2021, effectively canceling the summer blockbuster season.

Their report also says Warner Bros. may have been a tad too optimistic when moving Wonder Woman 1984 to August, and will likely be forced to push the film back even further within the next few weeks/months unless a miracle coronavirus cure is discovered in the interim, which, unfortunately at this time, seems highly improbable. 

As for whether some of these films could skip a traditional theatrical release and head straight to digital and on demand, that's almost definitely not going to happen. Each of the aforementioned films carry budgets well north of $100 million (not including marketing and distribution costs) and could potentially lose hundreds of millions of dollars forgoing a theatrical release. 

There is a possibility that smaller films with budgets in the range of Universal's The Invisible Man ($7M budget) and STX's The Gentlemen ($22M budget) could skip theaters and head to digital instead. Film analysts do believe many of the recent mid-budget films to debut early on digital did perform well enough to justify such a move for studios as they work not to lose money while theaters remain shut down across the globe.

The worldwide theater shut down remains the biggest reason behind delaying multiple films into next year rather than into late 2020, as even if the United States manages to flatten the curve and potentially recover as a country by June/July, movie studios won't be so keen on opening films if the vast majority of theaters remain closed around the world, including in Asia and Europe, where stars like Tom Cruise, Vin Diesel, Dwayne Johnson, Emily Blunt and Scarlett Johansson, amongst others, are huge box office draws. 

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tmp3
tmp3 - 4/1/2020, 8:52 AM
A delay was inevitable, but it's for the best. Open TENET in Christmas
regularmovieguy
regularmovieguy - 4/1/2020, 9:05 AM
@tmp3

In other news we should be getting Tom Holland and Robert Pattinson’s new Netflix movie soon.

Just got rated by the MPA.
IronGenesis
IronGenesis - 4/1/2020, 9:10 AM
@tmp3 - can WBs risk it? Tenet AND Dune within a week of each other?
tmp3
tmp3 - 4/1/2020, 9:17 AM
@IronGenesis - I think Dune might have to be delayed
LongMayHeReign
LongMayHeReign - 4/1/2020, 10:03 AM
@tmp3 - "I think Dune might have to be delayed"

Did that actually come out of your mouth (or electronic device)?



tmp3
tmp3 - 4/1/2020, 10:07 AM
@LongMayHeReign - Look, even I wasn't expecting the situation to get as bad as it has lol
LongMayHeReign
LongMayHeReign - 4/1/2020, 10:10 AM
@tmp3 - That shit changed quick Lol!
Battabing
Battabing - 4/1/2020, 3:42 PM
@tmp3 -


Bitch, you been hacked!
Reeds2Much
Reeds2Much - 4/1/2020, 8:57 AM
TheUnworthyThor
TheUnworthyThor - 4/1/2020, 9:04 AM
Alright this is starting to get boring, where is life’s fast forward button?
GhostDog
GhostDog - 4/1/2020, 9:14 AM
Nolan right now
DannRamm113
DannRamm113 - 4/1/2020, 9:23 AM
MovieMonster
MovieMonster - 4/1/2020, 9:23 AM
WB will move Tenet to December this delaying Dune to Summer or Fall of 2021. They probably want Tenet to be an Oscar contender. We have yet to see a single frame from Dune and I don’t think they’re going to want to start the marketing campaign right now.
LongMayHeReign
LongMayHeReign - 4/1/2020, 10:09 AM
Where are those dudes calling for movies to go to streaming? Why aren't they keeping that same energy?
tmp3
tmp3 - 4/1/2020, 10:10 AM
@LongMayHeReign - @Battabing already said Tenet should go to streaming, so I guess he's just sleeping right now
LongMayHeReign
LongMayHeReign - 4/1/2020, 10:12 AM
@tmp3 - Nah not him he always kept it 100% I'm mainly talking about @soberchimera and to a lesser extent @SpardaJr
soberchimera
soberchimera - 4/1/2020, 10:29 AM
@LongMayHeReign - Let's go streaming!
LongMayHeReign
LongMayHeReign - 4/1/2020, 10:37 AM
@soberchimera -

ATrueHero1987
ATrueHero1987 - 4/1/2020, 10:35 AM
Yep, summer 2020 is cancelled!
ThorArms
ThorArms - 4/1/2020, 11:41 AM
I'm running out of shit to watch at home. Starting to go crazy
JaKBaLLTV
JaKBaLLTV - 4/1/2020, 12:43 PM
@ThorArms - have you seen Invisible Man or The 12th Man? if you like the Lighthouse, you'll like the 12th Man.. its subtitles cus german language, but worth it, WW2 meets 127 hours
NinnesMBC
NinnesMBC - 4/1/2020, 12:41 PM
Let's hope it doesn't become that bad.
JaKBaLLTV
JaKBaLLTV - 4/1/2020, 12:45 PM
well i'm good with just digital releases for now, cus i finally got a decent movie system at home 👍😁
bcom
bcom - 4/1/2020, 12:49 PM
With almost an entire year's worth of movies being delayed I wonder how they're going to schedule them all back in once theaters open again.

Will they literally just hold everything off for a year or cram the start of next year with them all?
bkmeijer2
bkmeijer2 - 4/1/2020, 2:05 PM
I don't really care for Jungle Cruise, but Top Gun and Tenet were probably the two movies I've been looking forward too this year. Stupid corona crisis trying to mess up everything
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