Well, we can scratch July as the month the Summer Movie Season officially began. Tenet has just been delayed for a second time and I’m now waiting for Disney to announce that Mulan has been pushed back as well.
Warner Bros. made the announcement yesterday. Tenet (watch its second trailer here) has been pushed from July 31 to August 12, 2020. The 10th anniversary re-release of Inception has moved back into Tenet‘s old July 31 slot.
In a statement, a WB spokesperson said:
“Warner Bros. is committed to bringing ‘Tenet’ to audiences in theaters, on the big screen, when exhibitors are ready and public health officials say it’s time. In this moment what we need to be is flexible, and we are not treating this as a traditional movie release. We are choosing to open the movie mid-week to allow audiences to discover the film in their own time, and we plan to play longer, over an extended play period far beyond the norm, to develop a very different yet successful release strategy.”
Honestly, this makes sense given that most American theaters (especially the ones in major cities) aren’t open yet. But the rest of the world is slowly re-opening and, with no new movies to show, theaters have been showing classics. Jurassic Park topped the box office last weekend for the first time in 27 years. We are living in a strange, but interesting time for cinema.
Also on the move is The SpongeBob Movie: Sponge on the Run. The animated film has been pulled from a theatrical release and will instead hit premium digital rental services in early 2021 before going to CBS All Access as an exclusive original movie.
Marc DeBevoise, chief digital officer at ViacomCBS and president and CEO of ViacomCBS Digital, issued the following statement regarding the move:
“We are thrilled to have The Spongebob Movie: Sponge on the Run, a premier, first-run movie from one of ViacomCBS’ biggest brands, join CBS All Access’ expanding slate of franchise content from across ViacomCBS. This launch will be perfectly timed with our continued expansion and planned rebranding of the service in early 2021, as we welcome SpongeBob and the gang from Bikini Bottom to the service in the biggest way possible.”
CBS All Access is undergoing a major corporate rebranding to make it more of a ViacomCBS streaming service to compete with such heavy hitters as Peacock, HBO Max, and Disney+. The revamp will include programming from Comedy Central, Nickelodeon, BET, and MTV as well as numerous Paramount films.
2021 is a long time to keep an animated film featuring SpongeBob in the can, but here’s hoping that when it does arrive it will be funnier than his last outing.
Did WB make the right move in delaying Tenet for a second time? What film will actually get you back into theaters? Tell us in the comments!
