The recent closure of multiple American theatre chains for the indefinite future (AMC Theatres may keep closed past mid-June) might not be the only reason for upcoming release delays for large studio feature films.
Films that wrapped filming might not escape release date shuffles later in the year and extensive delays themselves. Projects with heavy use of digital visual effects shots might be directly impacted by the shutdown/lockdown of California and might ramp down post-production to a snail’s pace as to keep employees sane and safe.
Plenty of VFX heavy movies originally set for release in 2020 like Denis Villeneuve’s Dune, Marvel’s Eternals directed by Chloe Zhao, Legendary’s Godzilla vs Kong, and Tom Hardy’s Spider-Man spinoff Venom 2 could see their post-production schedules disrupted.
While many offices are mandating working from home remotely, one thing is being ignored by fandom, the childcare situation as many daycares and schools have closed. Leaving parents to focus on both childcare and work at the same time in the home space which can be tough to juggle.
I don’t see companies forcing these visual effects teams to run themselves into the ground as increased stress levels can have an impact on immunity and the health and safety of their employees (along with their families) should be the priority over post-production productivity.
Many can people understand the production hiatuses but will have to start being openminded about giving the post-production teams a little wiggle-room while they’re dealing with a pandemic and keeping their families entertained/safe.
We already pointed out back on Monday in another feature article that Marvel Studios films and Disney+ shows could be all be delayed due to coronavirus across the board including upcoming shoots like Doctor Strange Into The Multiverse of Madness, Spider-Man 3, and Thor: Love & Thunder being halted altogether.
Stuff like The Mandalorian wrapped-up their second season this month, but it remains to be seen if they’ll be able to be out on October as planned. I don’t see how a bulk of the Disney+ shows will be able to drop on time and that shouldn’t be such a big issue in the scheme of things.
Fans don’t need to panic but might want to warm-up to the idea that most 2020 productions won’t be coming out on time as things don’t seem to be calming down anytime soon.
Nobody has a crystal ball at this point but with increasing cases of COVID-19 in the United States and the possibility of lockdowns being extended, this could have a greater impact on these productions in a big way as people increasingly get sick and ding productivity in almost every industry including Hollywood.
From a business and liability standpoint, it makes sense that studios simply just bump a lot of these late 2020 projects into 2021 and filling the void in fall/winter months with spring/summer releases if theatres can re-open by then.
I guess we’ll have to keep an eye out to see what various studios plan to do movie-to-movie as not all movies were destined to make a billion dollars for them.
