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Lack of 'Black Widow,' 'F9' Leaves Summer Movie Season Muted

Associated Press

   LOS ANGELES - The six-year fan campaign for a standalone Black Widow
   movie was paying off: At long last, a film would put Scarlett
   Johansson's popular Avenger front and center. And, like many of
   Marvel's biggest spectacles, it was set to open the weekend of May 1.

   "Black Widow" was to kick off what promised to be a typically lucrative
   summer moviegoing season, which runs from Memorial Day through Labor
   Day and generally accounts for $4 billion, nearly 40% of the yearly
   North American box office. And there was a lot more to look forward to:
   Tom Cruise's return to one of his most iconic roles; a "Wonder Woman"
   sequel; original fare from Christopher Nolan and Wes Anderson, and
   more. Then the unthinkable happened.

   Now modern Hollywood is faced with a gutted summer season that at the
   very earliest will kick off months late -- and even that is changing by
   the minute. On Monday, Judd Apatow's Pete Davidson movie "The King of
   Staten Island" switched to a June 12 home video release, following in
   the path of Disney's "Artemis Fowl," out on Disney Plus June 12, and
   Warner Bros.' "Scoob!" available May 15.

   No blockbusters until July

   A few states are talking about allowing movie theaters to reopen soon
   -- Texas as early as Friday. But no major blockbusters are set to open
   until mid-July. The first is Christopher Nolan's thriller "Tenet," a
   Warner Bros. film, which has ardently stood its ground on July 17.
   Shortly afterward, Disney plans to open "Mulan" on July 24, four months
   after its original date. And then comes "Wonder Woman 1984" on August
   14, two months later than planned. It's something, but it's still a
   shell of what summer 2020 at the movies was supposed to be.

   "We're down 50% right now," said Comscore senior media analyst Paul
   Dergarabedian. "If theaters open in mid-July it'll offset some of the
   really disastrous models. But it would be naive to think that we're
   going to make up all that box office."

   Studios have depended on massive revenues from the summer months for
   decades, but in recent years they have discovered that movies can do
   blockbuster numbers in nearly any month.

   That will be tested with Hollywood's massively revamped schedule. Wes
   Anderson's "The French Dispatch" will open on October 16, "Black Widow"
   will get her day on November 6; and "Top Gun: Maverick" is now set for
   Christmastime.

   Some films abandoned 2020 entirely, including the "Fast and Furious"
   movie "F9"; the Dwayne Johnson-Emily Blunt adventure "Jungle Cruise";
   and "Ghostbusters: Afterlife," which were all pushed to 2021.

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