With the announcement, via an article from Vulture by Chris Lee, that Sony was going to, yet again, delay ‘Venom: Let There Be Carnage’, and Disney possibly delaying the release of ‘The Eternals’, Sony, Disney and other studios are hitting the panic button and using Delta as the super scapegoat for their poor box office. According to Vulture and other entertainment websites, the very fluid pandemic and the rise in infection rates due to the Delta variant are the main cause for the ever changing release dates and poor box office showings.
“It was the fourth weekend in July when Hollywood began to grasp the terrible extent of 2021’s Not-So-Hot Vaxx Summer of weak ticket sales. From July 23 to 25, ‘Jungle Cruise’, the Dwayne Johnson and Emily Blunt embodiment of an old-timey Disneyland amusement-park ride, premiered to a “soft” $34.2 million in North American theaters (with another $30 million coming from concurrent Disney+ premium video rentals) — lackluster returns for a brassy kids’ flick that cost more than $200 million to produce and at least another $100 million to market. Then, two weeks later, as surges in the Delta variant continued to stretch emergency rooms to their breaking point across the continent, Warner Bros.’ R-rated supervillain romp ‘The Suicide Squad’ drew similarly underwhelming crowds.”
‘Jungle Cruise’, to date, has only amassed $175 million globally. With a production budget, including marketing, of near $400 million it is going to go
down as a complete failure. In addition, this film was geared towards the whole family and families just didn’t show up….which doesn’t bode well for Disney’s financials. Lee continued in the article that with ‘The Suicide Squad’s’ abysmal $26 million opening weekend on August 6th, Sony was quick to respond by indefinitely delaying the CGI/live action ‘Clifford The Big Red Dog’ and sold the streaming rights of the fourth installment of the animated ‘Hotel Transylvania’ to Amazon Studios. The Vulture article continued by affirming the Delta variant fears by delaying ‘Venom: Let There Be Carnage’ a second time.
“And in what was interpreted as the clearest indicator of Hollywood’s fear surrounding the Delta variant’s blockbuster-killing power, Sony also pushed the release of ‘Venom: Let There Be Carnage’ from September 24 to October 15.”
This sounds logical except for the fact that there are other releases, including from Sony, that haven’t had their release dates changed and there is no indication that they will be. ‘Ghostbusters: Afterlife’ has remained steadfast on its release date and that’s a Sony release, ‘Top Gun: Maverick’ has also not changed its release date, and ‘Dune’ as well has not changed its release date. These are all potential big budget blockbusters that seem unfazed to the Delta variant scapegoat that is being blamed for schedule changes and poor box office. So why the delay for ‘Venom: Let There be carnage’? Maybe it’s because Sony saw what happened to ‘The Suicide Squad’ and ‘Jungle Cruise’ on their opening weekends. Maybe Sony doesn’t have confidence in ‘Venom’s’ sequel to perform adequately in the current climate of moviegoers. But, according to Chris Lee, Sony is going to delay ‘Venom: Let There Be Carnage’ again until January 21, 2022.
“The studio is waiting to make the announcement until after CinemaCon, the annual extravaganza at which movie-theater-chain executives and owners come to be dazzled by sneak peeks at Hollywood’s impending blockbusters.”
Sony is Potentially Making a Big Mistake
I think Sony is making a huge mistake with this decision. ‘Venom’ was a surprise big hit globally , raking in north of $850 million. It was a fun movie to watch that didn’t have you scratching your head a lot to figure out what was going on. I think Sony would be pleasantly surprised by the box office results if they just left well enough alone. Then again, maybe Sony wants to ride the coattails of ‘Spider-man: No Way Home’ when it is released in December. That might actually be a smart decision being Venom and Carnage are Spider-man villains.
Delta: The Super Scapegoat For Hollywood
Using the Delta variant as a scapegoat for why the box office of some movies are not doing well is weak at best. When you look at what movies are failing, you will find a list of sequels and formulaic entertainment that the audience is getting bored with(F9 being the lone exception due to the massive hit that franchise is over in China). You can cite movies that have done well in the past few months that have been in the same circumstances as those that are failing. ‘Furious 9’ has been a very profitable movie for Universal bringing in $696 million globally, ‘Godzilla vs Kong’ was also a big hit for Warner Bros. bringing in $467 million globally…and that was opened with 1,000 fewer theaters and simultaneously shown on HBOMax. ‘A Quiet Place Part 2’ has also been an extremely profitable movie for Paramount. All of these movies have opened under the same conditions as ‘Jungle Cruise’, ‘Black Widow’, and ‘Suicide Squad’. So using the Delta variant as a scapegoat is a poor excuse for why those movies have failed. In addition to that, ‘Free Guy’, which just opened, is on track to be a profitable movie for Disney/20th Century. Disney gets the sales but it is 20th century Studios that already had this movie in the can so they deserve the credit.
‘Free Guy’ Proves You Can Succeed During a Pandemic
Credit – Disney and 20th Century Studios
According to an article at Deadline by Anthony D’Alessandro, ‘Free Guy’ proved that you can have a successful movie during the pandemic.
“Those having any concern that the pandemic is wracking complete havoc at the box office can rest a bit easy as Disney/20th Century Studio’s ‘Free Guy’ smashed expectations with a $28.4M opening weekend.”
Shawn Levy, director of ‘Free Guy’ told Deadline that the current culture isn’t allowing for studios to bet big but rather play it safe.
“This is the first non-IP, non-sequel that Disney has released in literally years. And not just because of the pandemic, but because of the culture of our industry, which more and more rarely bets, and bets big –they’ll bet small—but bets big on a new, original movie. That was the bet that (former 20th Century Studios Boss, now at Paramount) Emma Watts placed and that Disney doubled down on,” Levy told us recently.”
It’s worth noting that Shawn Levy is the executive producer on the hit show ‘Stranger Things’. Mike Ireland, who was a 20th Century Studio exec and now works for Paramount as well, told Deadline that you will get an audience if you give them something original.
“I want the studios to see that when we give the culture, when we give the audience, something new and original, and therefore inherently original, the audience comes, the audience exists, if we end up evolving in an industry that is nothing but sequels and franchises, we’ll be the poorer for it, not just as an industry, but as a culture.”
Disney Refuses to See the Truth
Disney is probably going to delay the release of ‘The Eternals’ and not because of Covid(although they will use that as an excuse) but because of poor performances from ‘Black Widow’ and presumably ‘Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings’ that is expected to do poorly at the box office. Disney’s problem is creativity, originality, and identity politics. That is why they are panicking. Star Wars has underperformed dramatically under Kathleen Kennedy’s leadership and Marvel’s phase 4 has been extremely underwhelming under Kevin Feige’s leadership. Those two franchises that were initially bought to bring in the “boy” fans has alienated those fans by interjecting identity politics into their stories and chastising them because they have an opinion. Disney will use Delta as a scapegoat rather than face the truth of how identity politics and cancel culture are infesting their entertainment. When Scarlett Johansson brought a lawsuit against Disney for how they released ‘Black Widow’, Disney responded by calling the lawsuit
“especially sad and distressing in its callous disregard for the horrific and prolonged global effects of the COVID-19 pandemic.”
Disney is either that stupid or purposefully ignorant to the destruction that woke politics are doing to their IP’s. Disney has backed itself into a very small corner that I’m not sure it will recover from. With the closing of all of its Disney Stores, the lawsuit from Scarlett Johansson, the firing of Gina Carano, the unchecked social media bashing of its fans, the introduction of paid fast passes, the rising ticket prices at their parks, the race and gender swaps of established characters, and the the mounting box office failures, can Disney really place all of the blame on a virus? I suppose they will try.
Related: Kevin Feige Has a Problem
