As coronavirus cases continue to mount, its economic toll is also being felt as multiple industries are now forced to change their plans. Warner Bros., for instance, has had to change the release date for “The Batman.”
As reported by Variety, the Robert Pattinson-led “The Batman” was initially scheduled to be released on Jun. 25, 2021. However, it has now been moved to Oct. 1, 2021.
Other Warner Bros. movies have also been affected. From an initial Sept. 25, 2020 premiere date, “The Many Saints of Newark” is now moving to Mar. 12, 2021. “King Richard,” which is about the father of Venus and Serena Williams and stars Will Smith, is going to launch on Nov. 19, 2021 instead of the originally planned Nov. 25, 2020 release date.
Like “The Batman,” other DC superhero movies have also been rescheduled. Rather than open on Jul. 1, 2022, “The Flash” will now premiere a month earlier on Jun. 2, 2022. “Shazam 2” will premiere on Nov. 4, 2022, rather than on Apr. 1, 2022.
That said, there have also been a number of Warner Bros. movies that have kept their original release dates. The Hollywood Reporter says “Tenet” by Christopher Nolan is still going to premiere on Jul. 17. “Wonder Woman 1984” will still premiere on Aug. 14.
Warner Bros. isn’t the only studio that has been forced to reschedule. Pixar’s movie “Soul” has been moved to Nov. 20, while another Pixar movie, “Raya and the Last Dragon,” has been moved to Mar. 12, 2021 from an initial Nov. 25 premiere date.
Aside from rescheduled premieres, the coronavirus has resulted in a $600 million deficit for the North American box office in the month of March due to cinema closures. The global film industry is also set to lose $5 billion due to the closure of moviehouses in large markets like South Korea and Japan.
Companies like Disney have also had to institute salary cuts among their executives due to the economic effects of the pandemic, as well as furlough 43,000 staffers in the Disney World theme park.
It does not look like COVID-19 will slow down anytime soon as infections continue to increase worldwide. The World Health Organization, in its situation report for Apr. 20, says that there are now 2,314,621 people worldwide who have tested positive for COVID-19. Of those cases, 72,846 are new cases. Fatalities caused by COVID-19 around the world now total to 157,847 people, with new deaths amounting to 5,296.
Meanwhile, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention says that as of Apr. 20. the United States has 746,625 confirmed coronavirus cases, with deaths at 39,083 people.