Disney Removes ‘Free Guy,’ ‘Death on the Nile’ From Release Calendar

[Mark Strube]

Unsurprising, but depressing nonetheless. Guess we'll be running more Christmas classics this year. I'm certainly not counting on WW84 holding its date.

Disney announced another shake-up to the studio’s release calendar, postponing Ryan Reynolds’ action comedy “Free Guy” and “Death on the Nile,” the follow-up to Kenneth Branagh’s hit “The Murder on the Orient Express.”

“Free Guy” was slated for Dec. 11 and “Death on the Nile” was set to debut on Dec. 18. Neither have new release dates.

The delays are another blow to movie theaters, which have been struggling to sell tickets with the dearth of new film offerings. As it stands, “Wonder Woman 1984,” the comic book sequel starring Gal Gadot, is the only potential blockbuster still scheduled for 2020. The superhero tentpole will premiere on Christmas Day. Smaller movies, like Universal’s animated adventure “The Croods: A New Age” on Nov. 25, thriller “Freaky” on Nov. 13 and “Promising Young Woman” on Dec. 25, also remain on deck for this year.

Moviegoing in the U.S. has yet to rebound amid the pandemic, especially as major markets like Los Angeles and New York City remain closed. According to Comscore, roughly 50% of U.S. theaters are open.

“Free Guy,” directed by Shawn Levy, follows a bank teller named Guy (Reynolds) who discovers he’s a background character in a video game that’s on the brink of being shut down forever. Jodie Comer, Lil Rel Howery, Utkarsh Ambudkar and Taika Waititi round out the cast.

“Death on the Nile” stars Branagh as detective Hercule Poirot as he investigates the murder of a young heiress aboard a cruise ship that is sailing on the Nile River. Along with Branagh, the starry cast includes Gal Gadot, Letitia Wright, Armie Hammer, Annette Bening and Russell Brand. “Murder on the Orient Express” was a huge box office success, earning more than $350 million at the worldwide box office.

https://variety.com/2020/film/news/d...ay-1234773463/

[Frank Cox]

Every time I see something like this I wonder if the movie companies are considering how many theatres will be left after months on end of minimal attendance for second-string movies. It won't be much good to them to say "Here's the big blockbuster" when it's being released into the ten theatres that still exist next year.

I'm a very small theatre with minimal costs (no employees, own my building outright, etc) and I might be (just might be) breaking even with who and what is walking in the door these days. But over the past month or two I've noticed that even some of my most loyal customers that I used to see every week have started to not come to the movies any more.

Bigger theatres with higher fixed costs and employees to pay? I just can't see how they're doing it.

[Kenneth Wuepper]

It's Show Business!

Some folks will give away their life savings to continue to operate a theatre that is losing money daily and shows no promise for change. These folks live in an Ora of eternal optimism.
It is impossible for these folks to walk away from a terminal situation before it eats them up.

Corporations may seem heartless but their boards of directors can easily get rind of a bad asset in favor of survival.

[Mike Blakesley]

Some folks will give away their life savings to continue to operate a theatre that is losing money daily and shows no promise for change. These folks live in an Ora of eternal optimism.

Corporations can stick it to their stockholders and give the executives a buy-out, but what are we supposed to do? Just close up and wither? There are still things like insurance, property tax, even minimal heat (to keep pipes from freezing etc.) and whatever upkeep needs to be done. There are a LOT of expenses to owning a building that is just sitting there.

So it's way better to keep operating, reduce expenses as much as possible, and keep the lights on, because if people just see us closed up, with every passing week they get more and more used to the idea that we're "not there." We don't want that to happen.

We've reduced employee hours, gone to mostly free advertising, cut out "donations," and put off some projects we had in the pipeline. We're looking at doing private shows, we've already done curbside popcorn, and we play movies we can get for minimal film rent, and things like that. If only we can get popular movies, we'll probably be OK. Well, hopefully.

[Steve Guttag]

So that's a "no" on the curtain this year?

[Mike Blakesley]

Some items seem destined to always stay on the wish list, but it's still on there. (Along with a laser projector)