Disney Pushes 'The King's Man' To August As More Films Move Out Of The Spring

The dominos are beginning to tumble, folks. As everyone expected, with films like “Morbius” and “No Time to Die” vacating the spring release timeframe, we’re beginning to see the rest of the major films begin to move to later in 2021, including a group of films from Disney and its subsidiaries.

According to Disney, the studio is moving a number of films from 20th Century Studios and Searchlight Pictures out of the spring and into the fall. As for the Searchlight movies, we already saw these new dates, highlighted by Guillermo del Toro’s “Nightmare Alley” taking up a spot in the December awards season arena. But of the 20th Century Studios changes, the big one has to be “The King’s Man,” which is now leaving its March date and taking up residency in August. It’s joined by “Bob’s Burgers,” which was set for April and is now without a date, and “Ron’s Gone Wrong” moving from its late-April date to October.

“The King’s Man” is the prequel film that serves as the third entry in the “Kingsman” spy-action franchise that has done really well for the studio. This one stars Ralph Fiennes in the lead role and finds Matthew Vaughn returning as director. It was expected to be a big hit this spring, but now will look to pick up the slack in late summer.

And with these moves, February, March, and April are ghost towns on the theatrical release schedule and all eyes are now going to shift to May. Why May? Well, that’s where you currently have “Black Widow” and “F9” effectively bookending the month. If we see one of those films move, you can fully expect everything between now and July officially find a new date.

We just have to figure out what this means for the future of big theater chains like AMC and Regal, which have been really struggling to keep afloat during the pandemic. They have been hoping for the spring to show a recovery for the box office, but now, that’s just not going to happen.

Here are all the official moves announced by Disney today:
THE KING’S MAN (20th) previously dated on 3/12/21 moves to 8/20/21
BOB’S BURGERS (20th) previously dated on 4/9/21 is now Unset
RON’S GONE WRONG (20th) previously dated on 4/23/21 moves to 10/22/21
THE NIGHT HOUSE (Searchlight) is now dated on 7/16/21
THE EYES OF TAMMY FAYE (Searchlight) is now dated on 9/24/21 (Limited)
ANTLERS (Searchlight) is now dated on 10/29/21
NIGHTMARE ALLEY (Searchlight) is the updated title of UNTITLED 20TH CENTURY (20th) dated on 12/3/21 (Limited)