Hollywood Prepares to Delay Another Slew of Blockbusters1 min read
Reading Time: < 1 minuteHere we go again. Late last year, Warner Bros. was skewered after announcing that all of its new movies in 2021 would debut simultaneously on HBO Max and in theaters. Cinema operators, rival studios and even some of the filmmakers behind the movies wondered aloud why, with the prospect of coronavirus vaccines looming, Warner Bros. would make such a sweeping decision? It was a move that appeared to wave the white flag on moviegoing for the next 12 months.
Nobody expected mass immunization overnight, but with vaccinations being administered at a crawl in the U.S., it now looks like Warner Bros. may have been forward-thinking in acknowledging the box office’s slow return. Numerous films remain on the release calendar for early 2021, yet cases of the virus in many areas are higher than ever and approximately 65% of U.S. theaters — including those in popular markets like New York and Los Angeles — remain closed. Getting back to the movies in any normal fashion seems as unrealistic today as it did last March when cinemas across the nation were shuttered.
Image Credit: MGM/Marvel/Universal
