Several high-profile films have had their release dates pushed back as ongoing uncertainty over the pandemic continues to make studios twitchy.
Just yesterday, we learned that the British wartime drama Operation Mincemeat, was being delayed here in the UK as the Omicron variant surges through the country, whilst masks are once again compulsory in UK cinemas.
To further illustrate the uncertainty surrounding the film industry at the moment, even a filmmaker as illustrious as James Cameron, perhaps the king of crowd-pleasing, money-making cinema, has been openly worrying about the prospect of his Avatar sequels being fully realised.
To that point, studios are once more getting anxious about the releases of their big-budget movies, shifting them backwards in the hope that a delay of a few months, or in some cases, weeks, will improve in some way the chances of luring audiences to cinemas. This is just the first wave of announcements, but as we’ve seen before, more may yet follow.
Universal’s Fast & Furious 10, once scheduled for April 7th 2023, has been pushed back by the studio to the more prime-time summer slot of May 19th 2023. That’s a longer way off of course, and buys Universal time to make the film.
Sony Pictures has also delayed the release of the David Leitch-helmed Brad Pitt action movie Bullet Train by three months – shifting it from April 8th 2022 to July 15th 2022. Universal has also moved the Michael Bay-helmed Ambulance, featuring Jake Gyllenhaal and Yahya Abdul-Mateen II, from February 18th to that April 8th 2022 release slot.
Whilst there are no doubt multiple factors at play here, beyond concerns about the pandemic, studio bosses will no doubt be eyeing those summer release slots where case numbers tend to fall, as a safer bet. We’ll bring you more news on delays and rescheduled release dates as we hear them.
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