“Top Gun Maverick” has postponed its release until the end of the year.
What’s happening:
- “Top Gun Maverick” is another blockbuster film that will be rescheduled because of the coronavirus outbreak, which has waged war on Hollywood’s release schedule, according to The Associated Press.
- Paramount Pictures announced the sequel to the 1986 film “Top Gun” will open on Dec. 23 instead of June 24.
- “Top Gun” will be the lone holiday blockbuster during the Christmas season.
- Other releases include “Tom & Jerry” from Warner Bros, “The Nightingale” from Sony, “The Croods 2” from DreamWorks and “News of the World” from Universal, Deadline reports.
- Disney’s “West Side Story,” Lionsgate’s “American Underdog: The Kurt Warner Story,” Warner Bros.’ “Dune” and Paramount’s “Coming to America 2” will drop the following weeks on Dec. 18, according to Deadline.
The context:
- Several of the year’s biggest summer flicks have been delayed because of the coronavirus outbreak. It remains uncertain when movie theaters will reopen, too, since there’s no end of the virus’ spread, which I wrote about for the Deseret News.
- Eric Schiffer, CEO of The Patriarch Organization, told me: “This will change the way the box office operates for years to come and will speed up the push to streaming and the way in which films are released in the future.”
- And there’s no clue of how consumers will react to returning to movie theaters once the virus stops such a massive spread.
- Movie theater executives feel confident that people will return to theaters, though. At the very least, the theaters will be ready to handle the return.
- Jeff Whipple of Megaplex Theatres said: “The return to normal, whatever the new normal looks like, it’s going to obviously take some time. But we have full confidence that guests will be anxious to come back and experience great entertainment in great venues.”