Is it time to throw away hope that theaters will return to normal before the end of 2020? Hollywood studios were anxiously watching Tenet's domestic box office performance when it attempted to reignite movie theaters on September 3. However a little over two weeks later, virtually all box office analysts agree that the film returned disappointing numbers for WB. In the weeks following, there has been a significant number of film's pushing further out into December, 2021 or removed from studio release calendars all together.
Earlier this week, Variety reported that Black Widow was likely to be delayed and now, Marvel fans on reddit have discovered that some official international websites have changed the release date for Scarlett Johansson's (presumably) final MCU film to "Coming Soon." The websites also removed any posters that had a release date on them. While there's no official word from Disney/Marvel, things certainly don't look good for Black Widow retaining its current November 6 release date.
Of the big blockbuster/highly-anticipated films originally slated to open this year, only a few films remain on the 2020 calendar:
- November 6 - Black Widow
- November 20 - No Time To Die
- November 20 - Soul
- November 25 - The Croods: A New Age
- December 11 - Free Guy
- December 18 - Dune
- December 18 - Coming 2 America
- December 25 - Wonder Woman 1984
As you can see, after movie theaters rushed to open earlier this month for Tenet, there's virtually nothing of interest to tempt movie goers until November. And by opening, many movie theaters have lost some of the federal protections regarding rent payment and eviction.