As we already know, Disney owns just about everything. It’s just a fact of life when you talk about the film and TV industry. So, when a studio like Disney makes a drastic decision about the production of its film slate in the wake of the coronavirus pandemic, you better believe that some of your most anticipated films of the next year or two will be affected.
And according to THR, that’s exactly what happened, as Disney has halted production on its film slate. Yes, the entire film slate. Affected productions include “The Little Mermaid,” “Shang-Chi and The Legend of the Ten Rings,” “Home Alone,” “The Last Duel,” and Nightmare Alley,” “Peter Pan & Wendy,” and “Shrunk.” The latter two are just in pre-production and not actually filming, but development has been suspended.
As you can see, this is an eclectic group of films that spans a ton of Disney subsidiaries including 20th Century Studios, Searchlight Pictures, Marvel Studios, Disney+, and, of course, Disney proper.
“While there have been no confirmed cases of COVID-19 on our productions, after considering the current environment and the best interests of our cast and crew, we have made the decision to pause production on some of our live-action films for a short time,” a statement from the studio reads. “We will continue to assess the situation and restart as soon as feasible.”
Obviously, the health of cast and crew is of the utmost importance in a time like this, but with the future looking uncertain when it comes to the containment of the pandemic, it’s unclear how long this suspension might last for, or how this decision might affect the entire release slate of Disney. Remember, last year, Disney accounted for 38% of the entire domestic box office through its slate of releases. And if we continue to see the outbreak of coronavirus continue, Disney films from 2020 will be pushed and the films of 2021 (the ones listed above) will likely miss release dates. If that happens, we could be looking at some pretty alarming box office results.
Regardless, health comes first and that’s what Disney has decided to focus on. The fallout of this will be something to discuss another day.
