A new report in The Wall Street Journal indicates that the Walt Disney Company is seriously weighing the possibility of delaying the release of its live-action “Mulan” adaptation yet again.
The film was originally set to hit theaters in March before the pandemic hit and closed cinemas worldwide. As a result, the studio pushed back the release to July 24th. With Christopher Nolan’s “Tenet” then pushing back from July 17th to 31st, that meant “Mulan” became the blockbuster canary down the coal mine in the grand cinema re-opening experiment.
The new report indicates that with rising coronavirus cases in the United States, theater locations opening more slowly than expected, and the theatrical landscape still highly unpredictable – opening a $200 million budgeted feature and mounting an accompanying large marketing campaign to go with it in a very short amount of time is understandably daunting for the Mouse House.
The success of “Mulan” will rely heavily on international markets as well, especially the Chinese box office, but Chinese theaters remain essentially shut even as the pandemic has come under a level of in most countries outside of North, South and Central America.
Disney executives are expected to make a decision one way or another soon. Warner Bros. Pictures seems to be in a similar position with Christopher Nolan’s “Tenet,” but this week TV spots have been seen with its current July 31st release date advertised which indicates that studio is intent on sticking with that date. (Update: So much for that, “Tenet” is now August 12th).
