By Wonder Woman 1984 has finally been delayed. It was bound to happen given the fact that theaters are indefinitely shuttered and coronavirus in the U.S. isn’t slowing down, but Warner Bros. definitely dragged their feet about. While other studios had delayed releases for films around the same time the studio held tight to the film’s June 5 release date until today. Now they have announced the movie will release August 14.
That might still be a pretty optimistic release date to be honest. The WHO has already said that the U.S. is in for it hard and even if theaters have unshuttered by then its going to be a long haul before things are back to normal. Most other major films that have been delayed have pushed much further back than this or don’t even have new release dates yet. Maybe WB simply wants to stake a claim on what will quickly become a very crowded tail end of summer and beginning of Fall.
WW84 wasn’t the only WB movie to get delayed, though it was the only one to get a new release date. In the Heights has completely lost its June 26 release date and the Jon M. Chu film is now has no release at all. We’ll also have to wait an indefinite amount of time for Scoob! and Jame Wan’s horror film Malignant, the latter of which had its release date stolen by WW84.
It’s interesting that WB has not announced any plans to go directly to digital with any of these films as other studios have. They may be hoping that the later-in-the-summer release dates of the films mean they can get them out into theaters at a better time but one would think that children’s and horror films made on a lower budget might succeed better on streaming since the market will be very crowded once the crisis ends. Of course, the studio wouldn’t move something as big as WW84 to digital as is expressed by Warner Bros. Pictures Group chairman Toby Emmerich:
“When we greenlit Wonder Woman 1984, it was with every intention to be viewed on the big screen and are excited to announce that Warner Bros. Pictures will be bringing the film to theaters on August 14. We hope the world will be in a safer and healthier place by then.”
