Closely behind today’s news from Warner Bros that Tenet will be delayed two weeks comes another shift for the 2020 summer movie season. Wonder Woman 1984 has been pushed back for a third time from hitting theaters, and the fourth date change overall. Patty Jenkins’ highly-anticipated DCEU sequel will forgo its August date for a new slot in fall 2020.
Fans will have to wait two months longer to see Diana Prince swing her lasso again. Wonder Woman 1984 will officially be hitting theaters on October 2 instead of August 14. Warner Bros’ decision comes on the heels of the announcement that its summer tentpole Tenet will now head to theaters on July 31 instead of July 17.
This week, movie theaters started announcing plans to resume operations, with AMC Theatres currently confirmed to open its doors back up in July. In response, Warner Bros just announced a re-release of 2010’s Inception would take Tenet’s place in mid-July, in anticipation for Christopher Nolan’s new film release a couple weeks later. Wonder Woman 1984’s move over to October is perhaps to prevent the two films from directly competing with one another.
The news from Warner Bros certainly makes logistical sense, but it's disheartening for Wonder Woman fans who have previously marked their calendars for the film to initially come in December 2019, then see it pushed forward November 2019, and then to June 2020 – all before movie theater closures shifted its release to August and disrupted much of the 2020 slate. Gal Gadot took to Twitter to thank fans for their patience. Take a look:
The summer season is much less crowded than usual, but Disney’s live-action adaptation of Mulan hits theaters on July 24. Bill & Ted Face the Music and The Spongebob Movie: Sponge On the Run is also expected to make their way to theaters in August. In order to comply with health guidelines, movie theaters will open in July to smaller audience capacity.
If blockbuster films get more space between each other, in addition to moviegoers themselves in theaters, it could prove to be a key strategy to relaunch the box office after the billions that have been lost since multiplexes closed their doors back in mid-March. Tenet could occupy a majority of screens throughout August in an effort for the studio to score the likeness of Inception’s over $800 million box office success without the need for packed spaces.
If the current release schedule holds, Wonder Woman 1984 will now open on the same day as Tom Hanks’ sci-fi drama BIOS. Gal Gadot’s other 2020 project, Death on the Nile, is coming to theaters the weekend after, along with Robert Zemekis’ The Witches and Deon Taylor’s Fatale.
Look out for Wonder Woman 1984 on October 2, 2020 (fingers crossed it’s the final date) and check out CinemaBlend’s 2020 release calendar for more updates.
