Sony and Disney are taking markedly different approaches to their release of their upcoming Marvel comic book movies.
Sony has quietly delayed the release of the upcoming Venom sequel, Let There Be Carnage.
The film’s release has been delayed, both in the US and internationally, by about a month, with it now planned to release in October rather than mid-September. Sony’s decision to push back the film’s US release was not entirely surprising given that the movie’s international release dates began to quietly change a few days ago. Recent tentpole comic book releases such as Black Widow and Suicide Squad are perceived to have underperformed at the box office in some quarters, and as such, Sony is hoping that a month’s delay will make a difference for key territories in getting the Delta variant of Covid-19 under greater control.
One comic book movie that won’t be moving, according to Disney CEO, Bob Chapek, is Shang-Chi And The Legend Of The Ten Rings. That film is still slated for release on September 3rd, and Chapek is insisting that Disney is going to hold firm on that date, no matter what changes with the Covid situation.
The reason for this? Disney is keen to experiment with yet another type of release strategy. The company, who has tried a host of different strategies for releasing new films in the last year, is giving Shang-Chi a shorter, but exclusive 45-day theatrical run before launching it on Disney+ without a premium ‘premier access’ fee.
This is a strategy that other distributors are toying with and Disney seems keen to explore too, with Chapek saying “on Shang-Chi, we think it’s going to be an interesting experiment. The prospect of taking a Marvel title to [Disney+] after just 45 days would be an interesting data point”.
‘An interesting data point’? These poster lines write themselves…
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