Batman will stick kick ass...he is just going to kick ass a little later.
Warner Bros just updated its upcoming release roster to adjust to the COVID-19 pandemic. With all productions currently under lockdown and virtually every movie theater on Earth closed, a little adjustment is obviously necessary. WB joins a whole bunch of other studios who have already done the same.
So, when will Matt Reeves’s The Batman save Gotham City? The release date has been changed from June 25, 2021 to October 1, 2021. That is a radically different time for a Batman film. Batman is always a Summer staple. But things are different now. Besides, WB did well with Joker in early October, that movie opened with more that $90 million. Obviously WB knows that an audience will still come out in October, especially if they are fired up. So October will be Batman’s new home. But it remains to be seen if he will always reside in late Fall or if he will return to Summer whenever Matt Reeves’s inevitable sequel comes around.
WB also changed the release dates for The Flash (now opening a month earlier on June 3, 2022), Shazam 2! (now November 4, 2022) and the untitled Elvis Presley movie featuring Tom Hanks (that movie will now open November 5, 2021 instead of October 1).
They also pushed the Sopranos movie, The Many Saints Of Newark, from September 25 of this year to March 12 of next year.
A lot of changes! None surprising! It was only a matter of time until Warner Bros pushed back The Batman and it makes total sense: they had only filmed 25% of the movie when the coronavirus outbreak got really bad. They still have a long ways to go and no clue as to when they can get back to work. I am just glad the movie didn’t get delayed by something drastic like a year. That would have been a tough pill to swallow.
I have been wondering how the COVID-19 crisis will alter official movie seasons. Right now the busiest seasons are late Winter and early-to-mid Summer. That’s the way it has been for ages. But with everything being thrown up in the air because of the pandemic, perhaps a shifting will occur. Maybe Fall will become the new Summer? Maybe studios will put less interest in Winter? Or maybe films will be more evenly distributed throughout the year, after it has been proven that they can be hits at any time or any season?
We already knew that COVID-19 was changing how people watch movies but maybe it will also change when they watch them.