Movie delays put theaters at risk… again

The Future. With dual strikes rocking Hollywood, studios are starting to move their biggest films to 2024, leaving theaters without more blockbusters to show this year (COVID all over again). The delays are coming as top theater chains are already struggling financially and the domestic box office is still down 20% from pre-COVID levels — bad news for everyone in the entertainment industry. To keep cinemas afloat, studios may need to lean on alternative forms of promotion, such as live fan events, community screenings, and viral marketing stunts.

Push problems
If studios push their big movies to next year, Barbenheimer may be the last hurrah at the cinema in 2023.

• The dual release of Barbie and Oppenheimer has been a huge win for theaters, with AMC reporting July 21st to 27th was the best week in the chain’s 103-year history.
• With people excited to go back to theaters and see trailers for upcoming movies, cinemas want to build off that momentum.
• But it may be short-lived as studios begin to reschedule big releases due to the strikes complicating promotional pushes and leaving fall festivals starless.
• That’s bad news for theaters, especially as AMC (the largest chain in the US) says it’s running out of cash, and Regal parent company Cineworld is just exiting bankruptcy.

Rescheduled films include Sony’s Ghostbusters: Afterlife and Kraven the Hunter and Amazon’s Challengers. Perhaps more adversely, Warner Bros. is considering postponing Dune: Part Two, Aquaman and the Lost Kingdom, and The Color Purple.

No wonder Tom Cruise called into the actors negotiations with the AMPTP, urging the union to allow actors to promote completed films for the health of theaters.