by Conan Simmons – September 2, 2021 – 5:48 am
Here’s an awkward situation:
A day before the release of the latest Marvel movie, ‘Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings’, in theaters only another studio announces several films are being delayed due to rising Covid-19 cases. This comes not long after Disney, the parent company of Marvel, called the lawsuit filed against them by Scarlett Johansson a “callous disregard for the horrific and prolonged global effects of the Covid-19 pandemic.” That lawsuit claims that Johansson lost out on contractual bonuses from the theatrical performance of Marvel movie ‘Black Widow’ when Disney forced Marvel to release the movie day-and-date streaming on Disney+.
Paramount has announced that three of the studio’s productions will now shift release dates to avoid the surge of the Delta variant. ‘Jackass Forever’ moves from October 22, 2021 into February 4, 2022 leaving only Warner Bros. ‘Dune’, a day-and-date release on HBO Max, on that October date. Two films starring Hollywood’s biggest star, Tom Cruise, are also taking off to land at a later time. ‘Top Gun: Maverick’ shoots out of November 19 and into May 27 next year, the date originally slated for Cruise’s next ‘Mission: Impossible 7’ which leaps into September 30, 2022. This shifting is slightly less awkward for Tom Cruise and Paramount after appearing at this years CinemaCon, a gathering of theater owners held each year in Las Vegas, where Paramount doubled down on voicing their commitment to theatrical only releases.
Paramount recently took their anticipated family film ‘Clifford the Big Red Dog’ completely out of the release calendar. The film was originally set to open this month along with a showing at the Toronto International Film Festival. No official word of when the film will be released has come from the studio though it looks like they are cautiously eyeing a Christmas release in the U.K. but that may change as well in light of this current news.
Other Hollywood studios don’t seem to share the same level of caution as Paramount. Sony, for instance, in response to Paramount’s news has now shifted the release of ‘Ghostbusters: Afterlife’ from November 11 into November 19, the date now vacated by ‘Top Gun: Maverick’. Sony has also not budged on the latest 007 thriller ‘No Time to Die’ which became the first major Hollywood film to delay release when Covid-19 shutdown the world in 2020. The seemingly perpetual release delays for Daniel Craig’s last outing as James Bond has cost the studio millions. For now, it looks like Sony is going to hold tight and hope they get ‘No Time to Die’ onto big screens in front of hopefully packed theaters.
Speaking of costing millions, ‘Mission: Impossible 7’ has a lawsuit of its own right now. The production is suing the insurance company that covers the production for not taking care of the costs incurred from having to shutdown filming due to Covid-19. The production has experienced multiple delays caused by the pandemic and the production company claims the insurer failed to uphold the policy that covers failure to film due to sickness. While not the splashy headline grabber as Scarlett Johansson suing Disney, this lawsuit over insuring film productions will no less be as important to the filmmaking community going forward.
In spite of the recently announced release date changes there remain over half a dozen major film releases still on the dockets for 2021. ‘Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings’ will begin early showings tonight on its way to number one at the box office, a position it should be able to dominate for most of this month. October brings ‘No Time to Die’ and another Sony offering ‘Venom: Let There Be Carnage’ along with Warner Bros.’ sci-fi epic ‘Dune’. November will bring Marvel’s ‘Eternals’ and December will see the Sony/Marvel film ‘Spider-Man: No Way Home’ along with Steven Spielberg’s remake of Oscar winning musical ‘West Side Story’ and ‘The Matrix: Resurrections’.
The number of vaccinated people in the U.S. is nearing 60% and rising every day and with sporting events allowing full capacity and bars and restaurants open the only major setback to movies coming out would be if theaters went back into lockdown. So why is Paramount being so extra cautious? It might not have to do with the pandemic in the long run.
Paramount is currently a subsidiary of ViacomCBS a company led by Shari Redstone, daughter of Sumner Redstone who passed away last year. Shari Redstone having taken full control of ViacomCBS after the ousting of CBS CEO Les Moonves, who resigned when several sexual harassment complaints were made against him, is seeking to merge the media company. The most rumored merger for ViacomCBS is with Comcast, the parent company of NBC, but that would inevitably be obstructed by SEC laws against monopolies, something the recent buyout of MGM by Amazon is now running up against. More likely perhaps is AMC Networks, which owns the cable brands while AMC Entertainment owns the theaters as a separate entity, buying out ViacomCBS thereby taking control of not only the CBS network of channels and streaming platform Paramount+ but Hollywood’s oldest movie studio as well.
Paramount is undoubtedly more valuable with films such as ‘Top Gun: Maverick’ and ‘Mission: Impossible 7’ lined up. So, and this is just my theory, perhaps it’s the thinking of Shari Redstone to not risk losing money by releasing these expensive productions in the midst of an ongoing pandemic instead opting for taking a buyout and letting someone else worry about making the money back on these productions.