By George Robbins
It is of absolutely no surprise to anyone but the most ignorant of people, but movie releases and productions being pushed is nothing new at this point. As of late, a majority of movie theaters have kept their doors shut to the public in order to open up as close to new releases as they possibly can. This has made it so that it is mostly independently owned theaters that are opening up nationwide as they are given the permission to open to the public again. While there may be no new movies for those theaters to show given the release dates keep getting pushed further back, theaters have resorted to showing older movies to keep people entertained. This is how we ended up with ‘The Empire Strikes Back’ being the top film at the box office for this previous weekend.
Movies are in a bit of a predicament at this point in time since a majority of them don’t have concrete release dates. This has resulted in movies getting shuffled around more than companies really want them to and there is no telling when they will really be able to release properly. Thus we have ended up with many movies being shifted out of their spots- even near the end of the year- and being moved to some time early next year or even an entire year to late 2021. At this point, it is becoming something of a daily bet as to what film will be next to announce that it will be delayed. As of now, it seems the most likely candidates are the movies getting most moved around that are supposed to premiere in August.
Many studios are starting to really take the cautious approach by pushing their movie release dates back further than initially projected. Among the new list of films to be delay is the upcoming adaptation movie for the ‘Monster Hunter‘ video game series. The film stars actress Milla Jovovich as a soldier transported to another world to fight against monsters that essentially rule over the land. She meets a man who can teach her how to fight the beasts, but there is no telling if she will be able to return home. At that point, it is just a matter of survival and hopefully the movie will not be an absolutely terrible adaptation. It is being directed by Paul W.S. Anderson who also did the ‘Resident Evil’ film series, so who knows what will happen. We will have to wait a little longer to find out as the movie was pushed from its September release to a new April 2021 release.
By George Robbins
The DC Extended Universe has its hands full as of late due to the number of properties that are currently tied to it. There are releases that haven’t even been able to have definitive release dates yet due to the pandemic that has so many things tied up currently. One of the biggest production that they have available for theaters at the moment is ‘Wonder Woman 1984‘ which has a prolonged release date. On top of that there are a number of other productions for the universe still in the works that haven’t had their chance yet to resume filming. Like most Warner Bros. films, DCEU films just have their hands full given what is happening all over the world.
There has been a lot of news as of late in regards to everything currently going on with the DCEU, including one of the bigger news headlines of Michael Keaton joining the DCEU. Keaton is known by many for his role in the Tim Burton ‘Batman’ films from 30 years ago. This brought many a happy fan joy because not only will he be in a DCEU film, but he will be returning to play the role of the Batman he play in the original films. This news has been welcomed with open arms by the community and has made people excited for ‘The Flash’ in which he will be appearing. Although production on the movie hasn’t really started, there is clear thought and intent going into that movie that will make it interesting.
Other than the fact we will soon be getting the ‘Wonder Woman‘ sequel and Michael Keaton will be Batman again in ‘The Flash,’ it seems ‘The Batman’ may be a title to really look forward to. The Robert Pattinson led movie will be a supposedly standalone film and sees Pattinson playing the titular “Bat” himself. With a variety of villains in the film, it is one we might actually be looking forward to seeing. Not only is the villain variety a bit higher than other films, the movie has been praised by a couple of the actors for its strong script. That being said there is still a lot that must be done for the film before it can even be considered something close to a finished product.
News for the DCEU is something that DC fans look forward to considering the rocky road that it has been presented on thus far. Many of the films in the franchise are not very well loved and some have been received not so well critically. It takes longer to get up and running again for this movie because it is such a large production, but it does show that a lot of effort is going into the making of the film. Production will start up again soon and the movie is meant to release in October of next year. Director Matt Reeves has said that he is already working on a spin-off television show that will air on HBO Max that focuses on Gotham PD in the universe of Pattinson’s ‘Batman.’ This only leads to stoking the flames of hope that the new film will give us something incredible to watch.
By George Robbins
Although theaters are still mostly shut down all over the nation due to the coronavirus pandemic, there are many privately owned theaters that are open to the public. Movie theater chains have yet to reopen because they see no point in doing so due to it being such a monumental effort and because of the currently high risk social climate right now. Due to the reopening of many different public places nationwide, there was a very rapid growth in the number of new cases that we were seeing pop up all over. This brings with it the possibility that we will businesses start to shut down again in an effort to curb the growing numbers. This risk is a big reason why the main theater chains don’t want their doors reopened just yet, while the bigger reason is that they have no new content to show to the public.
Movies have had no choice but to be delayed due to the aforementioned spike in new Covid-19 cases that is currently sweeping across a majority of the nation. Studios don’t want to take the risk that they would be repeating the start of the pandemic; releasing movies and then having to pull them out of theaters way too early and put them up for sale on a digital format. One of the films meant to release in the middle of July, ‘Tenet,’ was moved back to almost the middle of August despite some protest from the movie’s director. This was a push deemed necessary by the studio and other companies have taken similar steps with Disney even moving back their upcoming live-action version of ‘Mulan.’ Thus, most theaters have decided not to open their doors until at least the end of July.
Theaters that have been opened up already haven’t really had much success in drawing in the biggest of crowds, but dedicated moviegoers are still going there. At this point, not having anything to do at home is the worst thing for some people and they have to get out of the house. Thanks to a few new services from Fandango, they are managing to find theaters near them that are open and they can see what restrictions they have in place. This has given people an opportunity to try and safely get out of the house and see movies that they may not have seen in awhile. At this point, theaters really only have older movies to show and it is not so great for the bottom line of these businesses. That being said, theaters have managed to get the box office up and running again.
The Box Office has pretty much been shut down since the pandemic began and theaters shut their doors to the public. With no earnings to report, they were essentially shut down until recently when some theaters domestically managed to reopen their doors. This has resulted in ticket sales for older movies, bringing them back into the spotlight after so many years. The amount of money being brought in is low as one would expect given the situation, but there is something instead of nothing, so some people are happy. Not too long ago, ‘Jurassic Park’ made its way back to the top of the box office from its initial 1993 release and now it seems ‘Star Wars: Episode V- The Empire Strikes Back’ has taken the seat on the throne. ‘The Empire Strikes Back’ stood at the top of the box office domestically with around 400k to 500k in ticket sales for the first time in two decades because theaters needed something to show the public.
By George Robbins
John Carpenter is considered one of the best horror filmmakers of the era due to his work on the original series that he created called ‘Halloween.’ This series of films is one of the longest running horror franchises out there and has remained a classic franchise ever since the first ‘Halloween‘ was released back in 1978. Since then, there have been a large number of films belonging to the franchise, but none of them have managed to capture the same level of fear and terror that the original film gave people. The first film has easily become, to many people, one of the best slasher films of all time and gave birth to a horror icon the likes of which is rivaled by few. Over the years, Michael Myers has become a being that inspires fear in just about anyone who knows the story behind the character and that still holds true now.
The reason why ‘Halloween,’ the original film, was so terrifying is because the main villain of the film is based on someone with psychological issues that make them kill people. Michael Myers is a terror which could feasibly exist in real life and this makes the original character and the one seen in the 2018 ‘Halloween‘ so much more terrifying. As time went on with the original franchise, things started getting weirder and Michael Myers became more of an unkillable mythical figure that always knew where his target would be. This made the character still scary as the movies continued, but not in the same way as the original film. It is most definitely certain that the newer 2018 film revitalized the franchise and allowed for the slasher to continue his spree.
The idea behind the new film is that it would allow for more films to be made as a result which is how we end up with a brand new trilogy that can properly end the saga. The upcoming film, ‘Halloween Kills,’ is something of a topic of discussion recently because there is just more and more news coming out about the film. Characters from the original film like Lindsey Wallace, Nurse Marion Chambers, and Sheriff Leigh Brackett, all of who are played by their original actors, will be appearing in the next installment. The character of Tommy Doyle will also be appearing in the film, but this time, he will be played by Anthony Michael Hall. This just shows that something major will be going on in the continued fight against the psychotic killer.
Apparently, the film will also pick up where the 2018 film left off right after the fight at Laurie’s house and will start on the same night. This shows that the danger of the Myers cannot be easily taken care of and no matter what is done to him, so long as he breaths, he will kill his target. The film is one that so many people are looking forward to seeing and it was meant to release in October of this year. With the number of coronavirus cases spiking again, it was a cause of concern that the movie might just end up being delayed like many other movies this year. Producer Jason Blum was hopeful that the movie would actually not be delayed because the release date was so much later in the year. Unfortunately this does not seem to be the case as Universal just announced that they would be delaying the theatrical releases of four horror films and among them is ‘Halloween Kills.’ Now we will have to wait until October of 2021 before we can see the next chapter in the newest trilogy.
By George Robbins
When the novel ‘Ready Player One‘ released to the public in 2011, it became something of a hit when it almost immediately made it to the top of the New York Times Bestseller list. The novel itself followed character Wade Watts as he searches for easter eggs that could lead to a treasure left behind by one of the greatest game developers the world ever had. For many reasons, people fell in love with the book because of all that is depicted in the novel and how it gave people of all ages something to identify with. Whether this be the massive number of pop culture references littered throughout the book or the depiction of a future that many children themselves hope for as time goes on. It is also for these reasons that the novel was dissected and everything people loved from the novel were pointed out as flawed.
Many people saw the novel as something light-hearted and fun to read in their spare time as well as a means of yet again experiencing their own lives growing up again. The amount of nostalgia that it gave people who read it made it an instant hit for most people, but it had its flaws that were pointed out by reviewers. It lends itself heavily to the idea that nostalgia is everything and that, unless someone knows everything about pop culture, then they are not really into the “geek culture.” So it has been pointed out that the movie is less of a coming-of-age story and more of a “stunted adolescence” story where the characters never really grow up. On top of that, it has been said that the characters in the novel are perfect examples of what people today are like when it comes to “geek culture” and that it is nothing more than gate-keeping at this point.
The movie, also called ‘Ready Player One,’ did a few things to correct the issues people had with the characters and gave people a reason to like the main character more. However, since the movie was meant to be an adaptation of the book, it was really just a visual representation of pop culture. This ended up being why the film did so well to begin with and I have nothing against it, and in fact, I rather enjoyed watching the movie because it is fun to see so many things interacting from different source material. That is something previously stated to some extent in a review done for the film. They made the characters feel less like they were gate-keeping the culture, but the fact remains that it was just nostalgia that made the movie do as well as it did.
This reliance on pop culture doesn’t seem like it is going to stop any time soon because the sequel novel, aptly named ‘Ready Player Two,’ has been said by the author to contain more references. The biggest problem with this is the fact that nostalgia will still be the leading factor for how well the book does when it hits the market. Nostalgia is the reason why progress itself ends up stunted and why, to some, the characters in the novel seem like they don’t actually grow up at all throughout the whole ordeal they go through. At this point, there is no telling if the characters will really go through any life-changing events throughout the story, but hopefully it will not just be a repeat story of the first novel. The only way to find out now is to wait until the sequel novel releases on November 24th, 2020.
By George Robbins
As of late, it is not much of a surprise that studios have pushed back the release dates for their movies considering the spike in coronavirus cases as of late. This has resulted in numerous issues as of late including the closing of theaters, delays for films that were just about to release, and studios moving films completely off of this year’s roster. Among the reasons for doing so is the monumental risk in releasing movies right now because it can result in heavy losses for a studio. Beyond people just not going to the movies, there is the heavy risk that theaters will shut down again not long after being opened, and this could result in what happened when the pandemic first began. Since companies would rather have full time releases for their movies, they will delay their films as long as necessary to get the right time frame.
Movie theaters as of late have had to keep their doors closed nationwide in response, not only to the spike in Covid cases, but also due to film delays. Theaters at this point are struggling, with many declaring that they will have massive losses this year such as AMC. Also, there is no guarantee when they will actually be able to open because as time goes on, more and more issues are coming to light due to improper handling of the Covid-19 pandemic. Businesses and public places were opening too quickly and not enforcing the restrictions enough and now the number of cases has spiked dramatically over the past few weeks. Thus, we end up studios deciding that the current climate is not right for movie releases and they are delayed to prevent box office losses. This hasn’t prevented theaters from being prepared for reopening and when the time comes, they want to be able to open all of their doors at once which is why AMC, Cinemark, and Regal decided to sue the State of New Jersey.
Although many studios have already announced delays and have said that they are still not sure about their current intended release dates, one studio no one would have expected as of late to delay anything was Universal. They had been saying the past few months that their PVOD, or Premium Video on Demand, service was worth putting investment into, and it seemed like any films that they couldn’t immediately release to theaters would just end up on PVOD for rent or purchase. This seems to only really count with movies that they think probably would not have done as well at the box office because they are now pushing back some horror movie release dates. The truth about their PVOD service is that no one knows for sure how well it is really doing because it is all reported by Universal and it may not be as great as they make it out to be. They also made enemies of the theater industry when they said they were more in favor of the PVOD release format, but still wanted to pursue theatrical releases simultaneously.
It would appear as though their upcoming horror movie releases are too important fiscally for them to take the risk of releasing them solely through PVOD. Their upcoming horror films were supposed to be ‘Candyman,’ ‘The Forever Purge,’ ‘Halloween Kills,’ and an unnamed sequel to end the new ‘Halloween’ trilogy. Both ‘Candyman’ and ‘The Forever Purge’ were meant to have released during the summer. Jordan Peele‘s adaptation of ‘Candyman,’ which is based off the original 1992 film of the same name, will now be premiering to the public on October 16th, 2020. ‘The Purge Forever,’ which is seen as a possible end to the story as a whole, was moved an entire year to its new release date of July 9th, 2021. Meanwhile, it seems that the ‘Halloween’ movies have been displaced possibly an entire year each, meaning it probably won’t be until around October of next year that we see ‘Halloween Kills’ hit theaters. These aren’t the first films to be delayed so far into the future and definitely won’t be the last.
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