Warner Bros is said to be examining its 2024 slate – which includes Beetlejuice 2 – and considering delays as the actors’ strike continues.
A ray of hope appeared yesterday that perhaps the actors’ strike might be coming to an end sooner rather than later. After a contentious couple of weeks in which negotiations broke down and several parties waded in publicly to express dissatisfaction with the deadlock, the actors’ guild has today paused negotiations, but possibly for a good reason: it wants more time to consider the latest proposal by the alliance of studios.
That clearly means the actors’ guild sees some merit in the latest offer, and we can only hope that it means both sides are moving towards a resolution that will see film and TV production begin again. Any deal reached is already too late to save some of 2024’s movie slate though, with the next Mission: Impossible film having already vacated its summer slot to move into 2025 instead.
You can bet that other studios will be looking at half-finished projects that require lots of post-production work and also wondering if they can make those 2024 release windows too. One such studio is Warner Bros, which is reportedly considering delaying Beetlejuice 2 and other projects into 2025. According to industry analyst Eric Wold, lots of these delays have likely already been decided but not yet announced for a very good reason: brinkmanship.
Wold tells Variety: “There will be a number of 2024 titles that move into 2025 and beyond because of production delays. Studios are holding back and not talking about it to avoid showing their weak hand during negotiations. But people are waiting for it.”
It certainly makes sense that studios would hold off from revealing delays (where possible) to strengthen negotiating positions as talks reach a crunch point. If a raft of films do get delayed though, it’s a worrying situation for cinemas, although it would at least ease the burden on VFX houses who already work under difficult conditions and certainly would struggle to hit vastly reduced deadlines caused by the strike. We’ll bring you more on this one as we hear it.
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