UPDATE: In the first sign of this being correct, the release date for “Poor Things” changed from September to December 8.
Even as the fall film festivals begin announcing their lineups of star-studded features and studios continue to release trailers for films coming later this year, there’s a ton of uncertainty regarding the release schedule for the rest of 2023. The reason behind these questions is the SAG strike, which means the A-list stars (or any actors, for that matter) can’t promote the new releases when they arrive. We’ve already seen some films getting proactively delayed to avoid any such issues, and according to a new report, Disney is starting to think about what it plans to do with its future releases this fall.
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According to a report from Bloomberg, Disney is currently having discussions about its fall film schedule and is considering the possibility of delaying some of the studio’s most anticipated releases. The report claims that it’s entirely too late to worry about a film like “Haunted Mansion,” which is arriving in theaters this Friday and has had next-to-zero publicity due to the SAG strike, but there are considerations for some of the notable fall releases to get delayed possibly into 2024.
Films like “Poor Things,” “Next Goal Wins,” “Wish,” and “Magazine Dreams” are all mentioned as films that could be delayed. “Poor Things” and “Next Goal Wins” are both recently announced as part of fall film festivals, so not only would delays affect the theatrical release, but we could be looking to a situation where Disney decides to remove them from the festivals. “Wish” is a big-time animated film with massive stars attached to roles. We have seen animated films score big at the box office, so perhaps the studio would be willing to delay just to make sure it gets the proper marketing push and could be a huge win. “Magazine Dreams,” on the other hand, seems like the most likely candidate out of this bunch to get delayed. Not only would the SAG strike affect the promotion of the film, but the feature’s lead actor, Jonathan Majors, is facing criminal charges and a legal battle due to alleged domestic violence. So, even if the SAG strike is figured out tomorrow, there’s still a question about whether or not Disney would keep this one on the schedule for 2023.
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But what about a film like “The Marvels?” Obviously, Disney and Marvel Studios need that to be a huge hit, as the first “Captain Marvel” earned a billion dollars and these superhero films live and die by the marketing push including actors doing a million interviews. For example, we saw how “The Flash” did when Ezra Miller declined to do media and it was basically just Sasha Calle doing all of the promotion. Well, even with the SAG strike ongoing, Disney/Marvel Studios just released a new trailer promoting the fall release of the film. And we know that delaying a Marvel Studios film ends up causing a cascade effect where a ton of other movies in the schedule get pushed. Likely, Disney is really concerned about the prospect of one of its big fall cash cows getting pushed again. (“The Marvels” has already seen its release date pushed and pushed and pushed due to a variety of other issues, including the pandemic.)
So, needless to say, there are some tough choices facing Disney right now as the studio figures out what to do in the coming months.
