Parents hoping that maybe Universal would go the straight-to-VOD route for the upcoming “Minions: The Rise of Gru,” as the studio is poised to do for “Trolls World Tour,” are out of luck. The film, which was recently pulled from the theatrical release calendar amid the COVID-19 (coronavirus) pandemic, is not only not going to hit theaters this summer, as anticipated, but is actually getting rescheduled for 2021.
According to Deadline, Universal has updated the release date of the ‘Minions’ sequel, from its previous date of July 3, 2020, to its new date of July 2, 2021, a full year later. And as you might expect, moving a 2020 film to a prime date in 2021 has led to a bit of a chain reaction. Universal’s “Sing 2,” which was originally scheduled for July 2, 2021, is now moving to Christmas 2021. And thus, “Wicked,” the Broadway adaptation that was scheduled to be released by the studio that holiday season is now without a date and pulled from the schedule.
And with Universal previously moving the action film “F9” to 2021 and Sony redating most of its 2020 summer slate for spring 2021, it appears that studios are no longer convinced that this year is viable and are planning for the future.
You see, back in late-February/early-March, when the first wave of delays became known, most people assumed that the summer movie season would be untouched and the spring films would be left to find dates in the fall and winter. However, it’s becoming obvious that the summer movie season is being left behind and there are only so many decent dates to release blockbusters in the fall and winter. That means, films like “Minions: The Rise of Gru,” which is expected to do $1 billion at the box office can’t just be released in some random date in September, January, or February (especially with kids in school). That leaves no other choice but next summer.
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Of course, eventually, the filming stoppages are going to also affect the release dates of 2021 films that are currently in production. So, perhaps Universal is also concerned that the studio will need a healthy slate of 2021 films to make up for the eventual delays, anyway.
All that to say, this move for ‘Minions’ sound surprising but is actually probably a sign of things to come.