Wonder Woman 1984 Release Date Change Reportedly Not Due To Tenet
Studio sources say that the decision to push Wonder Woman 1984's release date back to Christmas wasn't caused by Tenet's poor debut last weekend. The superhero sequel suffered its latest delay today when Warner Bros. officially announced that it was pushing the movie back to Christmas Day, vacating its October 2 date. Patty Jenkins' follow-up to her hit 2017 solo movie has been one of the worst affected by the coronavirus pandemic, encountering repeated delays, meaning it will now debut over a year after its first release date.
Of course, Wonder Woman 1984 isn't the only movie that's been delayed this year, with almost every single summer blockbuster being pushed back to 2021, or a late 2020 date, due to the coronavirus pandemic. Theater chains are slowly reopening, though the critical markets of Los Angeles and New York have crucially not been allowed to yet. This means studios have had to take an unconventional approach to releases, with Disney opting to drop its $200 million Mulan remake on Disney+ (for a fee). At the same time, Sony Pictures confirmed yesterday they wouldn't release any big-budget movies until all theaters have returned to standard capacity. One film that has released, Tenet, hasn't done well at all, making just $10 million its first weekend.
A report from Collider suggests that the decision to move Wonder Woman 1984 wasn't made as a result of Tenet's low box office figures. According to the report, sources from inside the studio say that Warner Bros. had been planning to delay the Gal Gadot movie long before this weekend's numbers were announced. Additionally, the sources say that WB doesn't believe it's an issue that Wonder Woman 1984 will be competing with Dune, another WB production that releases the week before.
If the report is to be believed, it's a strange decision. The studio sources cite the example of Christmas 2017 in their reasoning, saying that both Jumanji: Welcome to the Jungle and Star Wars: The Last Jedi both managed to perform well despite releasing a week apart. But those films were released by different studios, who were happy to compete with each other for audiences. Dune and Wonder Woman 1984 are both produced by Warner Bros, which means it'll be the first time a studio pitches two of its movies against each other.
In reality, the decision must have been influenced by Tenet's relative failure at the box office. There is no way that the studio saw the movie's poor earnings and didn't decide that pushing Wonder Woman 1984 was the right decision to make. The problem now is that it will be competing against another $200 million epic. Of course, Dune may also be delayed to avoid a clash, but in the meantime, it seems as though two of Warner Bros.'s biggest films of 2020 will be facing off against each other during the Christmas holidays.
Source: Collider