Paramount’s China office has announced that it’s pushing the release date of Sonic the Hedgehog due to the coronavirus outbreak with a future date TBD. The Jeff Fowler-directed movie recently clocked past $203M WW this past weekend.
Note, no other Hollywood movies in the PRC have been officially dated or moved in the wake of the coronavirus situation. The country’s exhibition infrastructure remains closed as they look to contain the virus. There’s buzz should the situation improve in the PRC, that Disney’s Mulan could go in May. Recently, MGM cancelled a China April premiere and publicity tour for its upcoming 007 movie No Time to Die.
As far as other impacts by the coronavirus on upcoming movie releases, we also heard that Disney moved Pixar’s Onward off of its initial Korea and Taiwan dates, pushing later into April. Earlier today, Paramount confirmed that the Venice shoot of Tom Cruise’s Mission: Impossible 7 was to halt as Venetian authorities have put a stop to that, plus all public gatherings as the coronavirus situation in Italy becomes more severe.
Here is the note from Paramount’s China local office:
Dear friends,
Due to the current coronavirus situation, the China release date of the film Sonic the Hedgehog will be postponed, and we will re-announce the new release date at a later time.
Sonic will only be slowing down his pace temporarily, and we look forward to bringing him zooming onto the big screen in China once it is appropriate to do so.
As the whole country and world unite together to fight the outbreak of coronavirus, we would like to express our gratitude and respect to all the medical staff, the rescue personnel, and people in service who provide us with much-needed assistance and support during this time.