Wonder Woman 1984 is no stranger to delays due to the ongoing health crisis. The Gal Gadot-led sequel was originally supposed to premiere last June, but the pandemic forced the film to shift its release date to October 2nd.
From that point on, the marketing efforts for the film have ramped up. New batches of images made its way online, featuring new looks at the core characters of the film. Several interviews from the cast and crew also surfaced, providing fans with interesting tidbits about the overall outlook of the film.
Unfortunately, a new report has surfaced that could derail the original plans for Wonder Woman 1984 once again.
REPORT
In an exclusive report, Deadline shared that they heard from their "exhibition sources" that "Warner Bros. is apt to move Wonder Woman 1984 again, this time out of its current Oct. 2 date to either sometime in November or possibly to late December:"
With New York, Los Angeles, and San Francisco movie theaters still not open, our exhibition sources are hearing that Warner Bros. is apt to move Wonder Woman 1984 again, this time out of its current Oct. 2 date to either sometime in November or possibly to late December, thus bumping the studio’s Legendary feature Dune out of its Dec. 18 weekend to sometime in 2021.
Deadline also pointed out that Tenet is "another reason why Wonder Woman 1984 won’t be able to go during the first weekend of October" since the outlet revealed that their sources are currently estimating that New York and Los Angeles "won't open until early October/late September."
The report notes that having "Wonder Woman 1984 in Tenet's way won't help" it's target domestic tail at the box office.
Tenet is another reason why Wonder Woman 1984 won’t be able to go during the first weekend of October. With sources currently estimating that New York and Los Angeles won’t open until early October/late September, the Christopher Nolan movie will still need to make a big splash in those markets, or at least make its best effort. Having Wonder Woman 1984 in Tenet‘s way won’t help its hopeful domestic tail at the box office.
WHAT THIS MEANS
It seems that the trend of shifting release dates amid the pandemic still continues, and Wonder Woman 1984 is the latest victim to bite the bullet. Even though production of several films and TV shows are slowly gearing up for restart, it appears that the much-anticipated premiere of films on the silver screen is a different story altogether. It remains to be seen if this delay will move forward, but the report strongly hints that this is likely to happen.
In a way, this development was already hinted in the past few weeks. During DC FanDome, a new trailer for Wonder Woman 1984 was released, but the footage didn't include a release date for the film. On top of that, Warner Media Studios and Networks Group head Ann Sarnoff revealed in an interview that they are "still figuring out the strategy" for their movies while also noting that the DCEU sequel deserves to be seen on the big screen.
All in all, it's evident that the ongoing health crisis has affected the release strategy of virtually every major studio in the industry, and it's a safe bet that WB is still mapping out a plan that will lead them to a win-win situation. At this point, anticipation is clearly high for Wonder Woman 1984, but many would agree that the utmost priority right now is keeping the public health in mind.
