As we speak, “Wonder Woman 1984” is six weeks away from its global Christmas Day release. That is clearly going to change in the coming days. The Gal Gadot-starring movie is not being released this year, don’t get your hopes up, COVID-19 cases are on the rise in almost every state and so is the wall-to-wall panic-inducing coverage in the media. That won’t end post-election, it could even intensify with Joe Biden theatening to go into a country-wide lockdown.
The fact of the matter is this: Movie theaters in New York City and Los Angeles remain closed, and to make matters worse, the UK, Germany, France, Italy, and Spain are about to enter a world of hurt with their economies headed towards total shutdowns. I’m even hearing the upcoming Berlin Film Festival might be scrapped if cases continue to go up in Germany.
With all that being said, Variety is reporting that Warner Bros. execs are considering whether to push WW84 to the summer of 2021, or keep the movie on its Dec. 25 theatrical debut and then put it on the HBO Max streaming service in early January, according to sources with knowledge of the plans.
We are less than two months away from the film’s release and Warners doesn’t seem to be in the mood to repeat what they did this past summer with Christopher Nolan’s “Tenet” being released in theaters and bombing at the box-office with a paltry $53.8M domestic intake. WW84’s rumored HBO Max unveiling makes perfect sense to me, it would also boost subscriber growth for HBO Max, which has struggled to build an audience when compared to its other streaming competition (Netflix, Amazon, and Disney Plus).
Netflix and Skydance Animation have also called it quits. The two sides announced Monday that they're ending the animated film deal struck back in 2023, framing it as a mutual decision.