And the hits keep coming. Universal just announced that it is indeed delaying F9: Rychlá sága from its intended May 22, 2020, release date. Despite Vin Diesel’s promises to try to avoid a theatrical delay, the powers that be have decided to make the move now rather than hold out hope for a better outcome.
What’s interesting is that the film will now be opening April 2, 2021. That’s A) my birthday and B) the intended release date for the untitled tenth rychle a zběsile movie, which was supposed to be the series finale.
As noted just an hour ago when discussing Část Klidné místo II ditching the March 20, 2020 release date (for a to-be-determined new date), the question became what would happen when the movies that were supposed to open in early 2020 ended up competing with movies that were always intended to open in late 2020 or early 2021. For what it’s worth, Universal is thinking ahead, even if it means justice is delayed for #justiceforHan.
Takže nyní rychle a zběsile franchise will not wrap up in 2021, but rather in 2022 (or later, as there’s no new release date for F10 at this moment, but I am assuming they won’t open concurrently). Of all of the big movies slated for 2020, I would argue that Justin Lin’s F9: Rychlá sága had the most to lose from this current outbreak. With the important caveat that China’s theaters may actually open soon, the rychlý series has earned a lion’s share of its overseas money from China.
Zatímco Rychlý a zuřivý 6 earned “just” $66 million in 2013 out of a $788 million global cume, Furious 7 (which itself was delayed almost a year after the accidental offset death of Paul Walker) earned $391 million in China alone, along with $353 million domestic for a stunning $1.517 billion global cume. Fate of the Furious, which opened in 2017, came back to Earth in North America ($226 million) but still earned $392 million in China for a $1.236 billion cume. The film’s $529 million global launch broke the record for a worldwide opening weekend.
Dokonce Hobbs & Shaw was the only non-Marvel/DC Hollywood release since Jurský svět: Padlé království ($266 million in 2018) to earn even $140 million in China. The 2019 release earned $200 million of its $759 million global cume in China. F9 was expected, by me anyway, to be the year’s biggest-grossing movie partially because of the expected windfall in China.
To be fair, as noted in Uzávěrka, theaters may be opening over there in the near future. However, I imagine priority will go to the postponed New Year’s weekend biggies (Detective Chinatown 3, The Rescue, etc.) over Hollywood imports. Moreover, a massive payday in China isn’t worth much if the rest of the worldwide marketplace is essentially closed for business, which is the situation Universal was facing. That said, it’s possible that this is an abundance of caution, with A) marketing issues related to Corona beer and B) an ideal release date already waiting for them with minimal inconvenience.
Since very few major releases, aside from the various superhero movies, have been dated for 2022, Universal can more easily just move Rychlé 9 do Rychlé 10’s slot and worry about where to put Rychlé 10 later. April 8, 2022 technically has an “untitled Universal event film” slated, but it’s right after Shazam 2 a souběžně s Spider-Man: Do Spider-Poerse 2. Memorial Day weekend 2022 is also pretty free right now, for what that’s worth.
Zatímco Není čas umřít was (I would argue) partially about moving from a less-than-ideal date (it was scheduled for November 8, 2019 and they delayed to April 10) to the preferred November slot, F9’s date change is arguably motivated by having an ideal slot already ready and waiting. With Paramount also delaying Lovebirds a Blue Story, there’s a case to be made, provided the studios can afford to do this, for essentially delaying the 2020 release slate to 2021 in broad general terms.
This will obviously be a problem for movie theaters, but so will having movies opening in 2020 to comparatively empty auditoriums. It’s a lose/lose, because this is an unprecedented and pretty horrible situation. And once again, all eyes are on Walt Disney, with the presumption that Mulan a možná Černá vdova will be delayed. Will Mulan just shift to a later date already occupied by a Disney movie? Will Černá vdova open where Věci was supposed to debut in November? We’ll find out soon enough.
F9: Rychlá sága, starring Vin Diesel, Michelle Rodriguez, John Cena, Tyrese Gibson, Jordana Brewster, Charlize Theron, Cardi B, Ludacris, Helen Mirren, Nathalie Emmanual and (of course) Sung Kang, will now open Apirl 2, 2021. I’m assuming Universal will now move Rychlý a zuřivý 10 to 2022, unless they want to go nuts and let them both open on the same day.
