The domino effect caused by the Coronavirus pandemic continues to impact the upcoming release schedule, and even movies like The Batman that weren’t set to arrive until the tail end of next year have been pushed further back now. Indeed, there’s an alarming dearth of content coming to theaters throughout the rest of 2020, as the studios appear to have decided that the entire year is a write-off.
There’s no way the box office or the wider theatrical industry can ever recover if there’s nothing for people to go and see, and wiping the slate clean could only cause more damage to the business in the long run. Of course, Christopher Nolan’s Tenet was viewed as the litmus test about people’s willingness to head back to the movies, but despite earning over $300 million globally, the reality-bending epic has seen less than 15% of that total come from domestic screens.
As a result, Warner Bros. have pushed Dune to October 2021 and there’s no guarantee that Wonder Woman 1984 will arrive as planned on Christmas Day, but luckily for fans, Ryan Reynolds has no intention of pulling Free Guy off the calendar. The actor even made fun of the idea in a recent promo spot, so at least we know there’s going to be one exciting new blockbuster coming our way before 2020 is mercifully over.
The final trailer is proving to be hugely popular, too, after racking up over 55 million views on YouTube in just 24 hours, and while that’s hardly an indication that the action comedy will do gangbusters at the box office, it does make it clear that there’s an audience ready to go and see the latest star vehicle from one of the biggest names in the business when Free Guy arrives in the middle of December.
