Disney is no longer releasing Mulan on Aug. 21 and is unsetting the movie for the time being. Oy, just when AMC was looking to turn the lights back on with a big movie in pockets of the country.
I understand that the No. 1 industry leader at the global box office isn’t waiting to see where Warner Bros. places Tenet next; they just don’t want to have to keep rescheduling movies until it’s certain we’re up and running again. Disney is also not revealing its playbook, i.e. whether Mulan will debut abroad first before domestic, even though logic would dictate that.
Earlier this week, exhibitors and distributors were betting Mulan would stay put; the notion being that the Niki Caro-directed feature adaptation of the 1998 toon would be on Disney+ by at least Christmas.
“Over the last few months, it’s become clear that nothing can be set in stone when it comes to how we release films during this global health crisis, and today that means pausing our release plans for Mulan as we assess how we can most effectively bring this film to audiences around the world,” a Disney spokesperson said.
In addition to the global pandemic, theater closures and production shutdowns, the Burbank, CA studio made a slew of other calendar changes as well, more specifically, all Avatar and Star Wars movies have been pushed by a year: Avatar 2 (Dec. 17, 2021 is now Dec. 16, 2022), Avatar 3 (previously Dec. 22, 2023 is now Dec. 20, 2024), Avatar 4 (formerly Dec. 19, 2025 goes to Dec. 18, 2026), Avatar 5 (previously Dec. 27, 2027 goes to Dec. 22, 2028).
The untitled Star Wars trilogy movies as follows with the first film, reportedly under Taika Waititi’s guidance, going from Dec. 16, 2022 to Dec. 22, 2023; the second movie moving from Dec. 20, 2024 to Dec. 19, 2025, and the third movie heading from Dec. 18, 2026 to Dec. 17, 2027.
However, some movies are on the schedule I hear, i.e. 20th Century Studios’ New Mutants on Aug. 28, Searchlight’s The Personal History of David Copperfield (which goes from Aug. 14 to Aug. 28 limited release), Matthew Vaughn’s The King’s Man on Sept. 18, Death on the Nile now on Oct. 23, Black Widow on the first weekend of November, Deep Water on Nov. 13, Pixar’s Soul on Nov. 20, The Empty Man on Dec. 4, Free Guy on Dec. 11, and Steven Spielberg’s Amblin remake West Side Story on Dec. 18.
Searchlight’s Wes Anderson movie, The French Dispatch, previously dated for Oct. 16, is now unset.
Other rescheduling:
Death on the Nile moves two weeks from Oct. 9 to Oct. 23.
The Empty Man from 20th Century Studios will now open on Dec. 4, instead of Aug. 7.
Searchlight’s Antlers will now open on Feb. 19, 2021.
The Last Duel from Ridley Scott and 20th Century Studios previously dated on Christmas Day (Limited) and 1/8/21 (Wide) moves to Oct. 15, 2021.
An untitled Disney Live action movie is now scheduled for Dec. 17, 2021 where Avatar 2 was.
Also, two untitled 20th Century Studios movies are off the schedule, one for Oct. 1, 2021 and another that was dated for Oct. 22, 2021.