In a new Bloomberg interview with Disney CEO Bob Chapek, he confirmed that a decision over the planned release for the highly-anticipated Marvel Studios title “Black Widow” will come down to the wire.
U.S. theaters are slowly welcoming customers back but we are still a long way from being the kind of marketplace to generate a major hit globally.
Chapek wouldn’t discuss a release date change, but says they will need to flexible in making the decision between sticking to either an exclusive theatrical window or potentially using the hybrid theatrical and Disney+ Premier Access model that recently used on “Raya and the Last Dragon”:
“Our situation and our conditions change. Just a few weeks ago, theaters in New York and Los Angeles weren’t even open. Now, all of a sudden they’re open, so we’re waiting to see how prospective theatergoers respond to these reopenings.
We’re going to remain flexible. We’ll make the call probably at the last minute in terms of how these films come to market, whether it’s Black Widow or any other title. We love the theatrical window. We think it’s important for building our franchises. At the same time, we don’t think it’s the only way to do it.
We’ll see what happens over the next couple of months. So much is changing, it’s such a dynamic environment. It’s really hard to predict what’s going to happen with consumer behavior in the next month as it comes to re-emergence back into the world of normal. We’ll be watching the call carefully and make the call when we have to.”
Cate Shortland helms the film which arrives on May 7th in some form – a full year after it was originally intended to debut.
