Warner Bros drastically alters its release schedule, pushing several of its high-profile releases back by up to a year – and Dune is moving to 2021 for a start.
In the wake of No Time to Die’s rescheduled release date, moving from November of this year to April 2021, focus shifted to this year’s major Christmas releases. The expectation was that they too would soon be postponed, as countries continue to struggle controlling the spread of Covid-19.
That’s proven to be the case. Warner Bros has announced a reshuffling of its titles, with several, as expected, being pushed back.
Denis Villeneuve’s Dune, originally slated for a Christmas 2020 release has now been formally postponed by almost a full year, with a new release date of October 21st, 2021.
Naturally, this comes as a further blow for exhibitors desperate for blockbuster films between now and the year’s end. Dune’s rescheduling has a further impact too; that date was originally set for Matt Reeve’s The Batman which is currently filming and for which we’ve already seen n early trailer. Deadline is reporting that The Batman will now open March 4th, 2022.
That in turn knocks Minecraft, another Warner Bros. project from that release date, with that film presently being undated.
Also losing its release date, albeit temporarily, is Black Adam, the DC Comics project spearheaded by Dwayne Johnson. That was scheduled to release on December 22nd, 2021 but is currently undated.
Other DC movies have been given fresh release dates such as The Flash, which has moved from June 3rd, 2022 to November 4th of the same year. However, this is a crowded release window with Paramount’s Mission: Impossible 8 and an untitled Disney movie also set to release so expect further movement here.
Shazam! 2 has also moved from a November 4th, 2022 date to June 2nd, 2023.
Notably, Warner Bros. has left Wonder Woman 84 on its current release date of Christmas 2020, and this in the wake of the news that a sizeable proportion of cinemas in the UK and US will be shuttered. Other films such as Free Guy and Death On The Nile are set to release around the same time, offering a glimmer of hope to exhibitors who are choosing to keep their doors open. It’s likely that there’s more delays yet to come, so watch this space.
More news as we hear it.
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