Universal is Delaying Four Horror Movies
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.