The Coronavirus pandemic shows no signs of slowing down anytime soon, with thousands of new cases being confirmed on a daily basis across the world, and it looks like everybody’s way of life is going to have remain very different for a while yet. The crisis has wreaked absolute havoc on the movie business, in particular, with box office takings down to absolute zero, and virtually every film and TV show that was either shooting or just about to start production getting halted indefinitely.
Not only that, but it was reported by Beyond the Trailer’s Grace Randolph earlier this week that the recently-delayed Black Widow was under serious consideration to be released straight onto Disney Plus without even hitting theaters, with the House of Mouse said to be concerned about the huge volume of income that they’re missing out on with their entire upcoming slate on hiatus, as well as the continued closure of their theme parks.
However, we’ve now heard from the folks at Comic Book Movie, who spoke to Disney, that Natasha Romanoff’s long-awaited solo debut will not be heading straight to home video. Though it seems that Marvel Studios and the Mouse House were seriously considering the idea for a while, they’ve ultimately decided against it.
You would imagine that this is a completely financially motivated decision, because no number of new Disney Plus subscribers could possibly compare with the potential box office takings that the studio would lose out on. To put things into perspective, Ant-Man is the only MCU movie since the end of Phase One to make less than $600 million globally, and the sequel was the only other installment in Phase Three alongside Doctor Strange to gross under $850 million.
With that kind of money at stake, you can understand why Marvel would hold back on dropping Black Widow straight onto Disney Plus, regardless of how long the prequel ultimately ends up being delayed for. Then again, if theaters are still closed by the fall things could change, but for now, Comic Book Movie claims that the plan is to have it release in cinemas.
