Yesterday came the news that Warner Bros. Pictures has pulled “Tenet” from its release schedule and will announce a new release strategy soon – one that will ditch a simultaneous day-and-date global rollout in favor of openings market by market depending upon how safe it is.
With that move, it’s expected others scheduled for August like Disney’s “Mulan” will follow. U.S. cinema chains, which were expected to reopen on July 31st, are now stuck without films to show should they open their doors.
Speaking to Variety about the latest delay, National Association of Theater Owners (NATO) head John Fithian is very obviously displeased with the “Tenet” delay which would’ve allowed exhibitors to make some money for the first time in months after closing their cinema doors. He also makes his feelings clear that studios should set a date and stick to it regardless:
“Distributors should stick with their dates and release their movies because there’s no guarantee that more markets will be open later this year. Until there’s a vaccine that’s widely available, there will not be 100% of the markets open. Because of that, films should be released in markets where it is safe and legal to release them and that’s about 85% of markets in the U.S. and even more globally. They should release their movies and deal with this new normal. Studios may not make the same amount of money that they did before, but if they don’t start distributing films, there’s going to be a big hole in their balance sheets.”
Fithian is going to remain busy for a while though as the delay also means theater owners are financially in a very tough spot and the organization is hoping the government can once again offer assistance. Whatever happens though, Fithian believes that cinemas will survive. They’ll just be under different ownership as many will go through bankruptcy.
