Moviegoers will be eagerly anticipating the re-opening of their beloved cinemas after months of silence in the industry.
The theatrical production line was ground to a halt in March amid the outbreak of the coronavirus pandemic, and has yet to restart.
But with Christopher Nolan’s Tenet the first notable release coming on July 17, the wait for the next big-screen release could be coming soon.
That is of course, if cinema’s exile is not extended beyond July.
Disney’s Mulan, Warner Bros.’ Wonder Woman 1984, and A Quiet Place Part II are scheduled to follow shortly after as we move across August and September.
Yet while any film opening to a reduced audience, or one facing a further delay, will suffer financially, it’s franchise content like Wonder Woman 1984 that will suffer most.
More specifically, those films that are part of a shared or extended universe.
Marvel’s first outing doesn’t arrive until November in Black Widow; though that had initially been intended to arrive back in May.
But Black Widow’s delay proves just how problematic a single delay can be, with every other Marvel Cinematic Universe entry also pushed back.
Each project in the MCU is intricately linked, and even with a film set earlier in the timeline like Black Widow, you can’t just chop and change the release order.
Hence why The Eternals was pushed back into 2021, and the likes of Shang-Chi and Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness were also hit by a several month delay.
Though part of the DC Extended Universe, Wonder Woman 1984 might face the same problems.
If, for example, Patty Jenkins’ Wonder Woman sequel can’t open in theatres in August, distributor Warner Bros. face two options.
Either they can offer the film out to streaming and video on-demand services, or hold back on the release altogether until normality returns to the cinematic schedule.
But in the case of the latter, a delayed release could have a further knock-on effect for their planned 2021 releases – of which there are already three confirmed titles.
Warner Bros. certainly won’t be drawn into clashing any of their DCEU titles, so if Wonder Woman 1984 gets pushed back into next year, we can expect the rest to shift.
That’s August’s The Suicide Squad, October’s The Batman, and December’s Black Adam.
Beyond that, The Flash, Shazam! 2 and Aquaman 2 (all due in 2022) might also be affected.
Meanwhile, another shared universe likely to be impacted is Legendary’s MonsterVerse.
On November 20, the fourth film in their universe – the eagerly anticipated Godzilla vs King Kong clash – is due out for release.
The film succeeds both Godzilla: King of the Monsters (2019) and Kong: Skull Island (2017), bringing together the two legendary characters once again.
Godzilla vs Kong certainly won’t go down the streaming route.
Legendary and distributor Warner Bros. are dead set on a cinematic release in order to deliver an ‘A+’ movie experience.
Though, this won’t be the final instalment, nor will it be the final time these two characters clash in Legendary’s MonsterVerse.
So any further delay here (it’s already been pushed back from May) will also affect it’s successor.
For films like Tenet, A Quiet Place Part II, No Time to Die and Candyman, the domino effect isn’t quite so substantial.
Of course studios will still look to refrain from pitting two of their own projects against one another at the box-office, and a crammed schedule will make that tough to avoid.
But without any planned follow-ups, sister-projects or such like – as with the MCU, DCEU and co. – there’s a little more wiggle room in terms of rescheduling.
Hopefully, none of this will be the case.
Normal service is still somewhat of a dream at this point; if cinemas re-open next month, there’s going to be a vastly reduced availability of seating, etc.
Packed foyers and packed screens simply aren’t going to happen for a while yet.
Can cinema survive in the meantime?
We’ll just have to wait and see.
A View from a Farr 