People wearing facemasks, amid concerns about the spread of the COVID-19 novel coronavirus, talk on a street in front of a poster for the Disney film “Mulan” in Vientiane on March 11, 2020.
Mladen Antonov | AFP | Getty Images
Disney is making drastic changes to its 2020 movie slate in the wake of the coronavirus outbreak.
The company revealed Friday that a number of films would be shifted to later dates on the calendar this year and into 2021 and 2022. Other films would be pushed to Disney+ or were not given a new release date as of yet.
Disney has moved “Mulan,” which was displaced in March, to July 24. That spot was held by “Jungle Cruise,” which will now arrive a year later in July 2021.
“Black Widow” is now set for Nov. 6, 2020, the date previously held by “Eternals.” All of the Marvel Cinematic Universe movies have now been shifted as a result of this change. It is unclear how this will impact the Disney+ Marvel shows “Falcon and the Winter Soldier,” “WandaVision” and “Loki.”
“Artemis Fowl,” which was due in theaters at the end of May, will now debut on Disney+. “Trolls World Tour” and “Lovebirds” are two other movies that followed this path straight to on-demand or streaming.
Theaters in many countries have been shuttered and are expected to remain closed for at least the next two months, if not later into the summer. This has led a number of other studios to amend their slates, as well.
Disney’s announcement comes just days after Sony said it had delayed most of its 2020 features to be released in 2021 and Universal pushed “Minions: The Rise of Gru” to next year along side “F9.”
These decisions underscore that studios are still committed to theatrical releases. Last year, the North American movie theater industry took in $15 billion in revenue, $11 billion of which came directly from ticket sales.
Last year, Disney reported $11.13 billion in revenue from the global box office, representing around 16% of its total revenue for the year.
Disney’s shares were down 3.2% at the close on Friday, and have fallen nearly 36% since January.
Here’s Disney’s new slate:
- “Mulan” to July 24, 2020
- “The French Dispatch” to Oct. 16, 2020
- “Black Widow” to Nov. 6, 2020
- “Free Guy” to Dec. 11, 2020
- “West Side Story” remains on Dec. 18, 2020
- “The Last Duel” remains on Dec. 25, 2020
- “Eternals” to Feb. 12, 2021
- “Bob’s Burgers” to April 9, 2021
- “Shangi-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings” to May 7, 2021
- “Jungle Cruise” to July 30, 2021
- “Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness” to Nov. 5, 2021
- “Thor: Love and Thunder” to Feb. 18, 2022
- “Captain Marvel 2” to July 8, 2022
- Untitled “Indiana Jones” movie to July 29, 2022