Anyone who has ever written a headline on the Internet knows it’s a tough task to be clever, accurate and timely all in just a few short characters. The goal is to always try to get it right, but those who have written headlines will also tell you that they are human and have failed at that task before. And if they don’t cop to mistakes, they either haven't written headlines much or are totally lying.
In fact, some ahem issues have come up a lot more lately as things have changed on a dime. In fact, I happened to see a headline we here at CinemaBlend wrote the other day and thought, ‘Welp, that didn’t hold up well at all.’ But what’s the point of living on the Internet if we can’t laugh at our own failures and misfortunes?
So, to anyone who’s still combing around the Internet and seeing these headlines now: We’re sorry. We know they sound just ridiculous given the quarantined state responsible citizens are currently living in and the social distancing they are practicing thanks to coronavirus, but trust me when I tell you we were operating with the info we had at the time.
Or go ahead and make fun of us a little. It’ll probably make you feel better, anyway, and just so you know these make us shake our heads in retrospect, too.
Despite Global Theater Issues, Mulan Is Still Likely To Make A Boatload Of Money
The Gist: Although theaters had been shut down worldwide, Mulan was still going to make a ton of money domestically in its opening weekend, which originally was going to be on March 27.
At this point, the U.S. hadn’t gone into lockdown and theaters were still business as usual. In fact, Onward made $40 million this same weekend, which wasn't amazing, but signs weren't all that worrisome yet. We weren’t fully aware of what was coming, to say the least.
What’s Happening Now: The truth is, this headline will likely eventually hold true. Disney has pushed back Mulan to an undetermined date that will happen once life goes back to some semblance of normal. Given it will get a worldwide release – particularly in China – it should make a boatload of money. But the headline still seems ridiculous right now.
Read the full article.
F9 Ticket Sales Already Way Outpacing Fate Of The Furious
The Gist: F9 tickets went on sale and immediately started crushing. This seems really straightforward, until you realize that now F9 has been pushed back due to coronavirus.
While some movies are holding out to see when this will all die down, F9 has pushed its release date back an entire year into Fast and Furious 10’s old slot.
What’s Happening Now: For those who did pre-purchase tickets for upcoming movies that are no longer happening or are being shifted to some future date, places like Fandango have set up contact pages with the full intention of issuing refunds and more. When it comes out in 2021, hopefully F9 will continue to outpace Fate, but we have a while to wait now.
Read the full article.
Despite Box Office Concerns, Black Widow And F9 Are Likely To Roll Out On Time, Here's The Latest
The Gist: Remember when No Time To Die was the only movie that was really worried enough to shift its release date? Turns out the James Bond franchise was more prescient than us. At the time, Disney was staying steady about the release of both Mulan and Black Widow and it seemed F9 would roll out on time too.
We were just all wrong. Wrong, wrong, wrong.
What’s Happening Now: There’s a giant list of movies that are going to need to shift their release dates and windows. For now, the next big blockbuster that currently hasn’t shifted is Wonder Woman 1984, set to come out in June. Yes, nearly three months from now. This was not a good movie release prediction, but we were using the information we had.
Read the full article.
People Who Stream Are Still Seeing Movies In The Theater
The gist: Movies and streaming services like Netflix and Disney+ are not actually in direct competition because fans of movies tend to use both. In this case, these are facts based on a pre-coronavirus study, but in the face of movie theaters closing across the U.S., this headline seems pretty ridiculous – particularly if you are reading that headline as if it were in real time.
What’s Happening Now: As of this past week, major theater chains like AMC, Regal, Cinemark, Marcus Theaters and more have all announced shutdowns while we practice social distancing and quarantining during the Covid-19 crisis. People who like movies are likely doing a lot of streaming, but not so much theatergoing these days.
Luckily for this headline, it will likely eventually be viable again.
Read the full article.
Why Vin Diesel Refuses To Move F9 Or Bloodshot Amid Coronavirus Fears
The gist: Vin Diesel wanted to keep going for as long as he could and was very optimistic that F9 would move forward in its April timeslot and that coronavirus wouldn’t get it on. He even confidently said:
Let me put it to you this way: Bloodshot at the end of the day is a soldier and a soldier doesn't decide or pick when or where he's deployed. We're going to go in.
What’s Happening Now: Bloodshot did get a release, but unfortunately it came in a weekend when most people had already decided to practice social distancing. Now Bloodshot is coming to homes early so fans that missed the movie in theaters can check it out. F9, as noted prior, won’t come out until April of 2021.
Read the full article.
The news cycle moves really fast. If you don’t stop and look around every once and awhile, you just might miss gems like these.
Meanwhile, we’ll be sure to continue to be as accurate as possible given the info at hand and will keep you updated regarding any changes in the industry in the coming months. And if we have the occasional headline that’s ridiculous in retrospect, please forgive us.
