Gather around, children. It’s time to talk once again about something that’s been happening all too frequently since the COVID-19 pandemic spread worldwide over a year ago: release dates being changed. While movies being delayed was hardly an uncommon occurrence in the Before Times, it’s been happening with significantly more frequency in response to coronavirus concerns, as movies that didn’t simply get sent straight to PVOD or a streaming service have had their theatrical launch dates adjusted multiple times. In the past several days alone, three high profile releases have been pushed further down the calendar, so let’s quickly go over them, starting with Mortal Kombat.
Until Tuesday, Mortal Kombat was on track to premiere both in theaters and on HBO Max (the same release strategy being used for all 2021 Warner Bros movies) April 16. Typically release dates aren’t changed when the movies is just weeks away from arriving, but WB decided to push Mortal Kombat back to April 23. Why delay the movie only a week? It reportedly is because of the short amount of time between Godzilla vs. Kong and Mortal Kombat. The latest MonsterVerse movie premiered today, so evidently WB wanted to give it a little extra room to shine on its own before the latest film adaptation of the popular video game series hit the scene.
Joining Mortal Kombat on the short delay front is Venom: Let There Be Carnage. The sequel that will pit Tom Hardy’s Eddie Brock against Woody Harrelson’s Cletus Kasady has also been pushed back a week, with it coming out on September 24 rather than September 17. It’s unclear why Sony Pictures delayed Let There Be Carnage just a smidge, as it was previously only opening alongside The Boss Baby: Family Business, and now it’s coming out the same weekend as movies like Infinite, The Many Saints of Newark and Dear Evan Hansen. On the upside, now it has a little extra distance from fellow comic book movie Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings (more on that one later).
Then there’s the Resident Evil reboot, which has been officially titled Resident Evil: Welcome to Raccoon City. Like Venom: Let There Be Carnage, Raccoon City, a fellow Sony release, was lined up for September, but now, instead of hitting theaters on September 3, it’ll arrive on November 24. This means it will now open the same weekend as the Ridley Scott-directed House of Gucci, which boasts an ensemble cast that includes Lady Gaga and Adam Driver.
Now we come to Black Adam, which was previously supposed to drop this December, but was undated back in October 2020 amidst various other DC movies having their release dates changed. Now the plan is for Black Adam to open on July 29, 2022, which means it will go head-to-head with Indiana Jones 5. While I’m curious to see which of these highly-anticipated movies would perform better better at the box office, I suspect one of them will end moving yet again, and with Black Adam about to begin production and Indiana Jones 5 still in the development stage, the latter is the likelier candidate.
That brings us up to date with this week’s movie delays, but I’d be remiss if I didn’t at acknowledge all the changes Disney made to its calendar a little over a week ago. The biggest of the bunch was Black Widow, which is now primed for July 9 and will premiere both in theaters and on Disney+’s Premier Access. Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings will now hit theaters on September 3, and the other notable delays hailing from the Mouse House include Free Guy coming out on August 13, The King’s Man coming out on December 22, Deep Water coming out on January 14, 2022 and Death on the Nile coming out on February 11, 2022. Whew! Alright, everyone take a moment to catch their breath.
As per usual, CinemaBlend will let you know if any other major movies are delayed. For now, find out what else this year has in store for us in the theatrical realm with our upcoming 2021 movies schedule.
