By According to a new report from Deadline, both Wonder Woman 1984 and Dune will be getting delays in the very near future. With the release of Tenet this past weekend, Warner Bros. was hoping that a high-budget Christopher Nolan film would spur moviegoers back into theaters to help buy some overpaid CEO his fifteenth yacht. Thankfully, people are smarter than I’ve given them credit for and didn’t immediately flock to the cinemas in droves.
Per various reports across the internet, Tenet was only able to bring in around $20 million for its first weekend in the US. That is roughly 1/10th of its overall budget with the number looking even smaller when lumping in the marketing costs. $20 million is better than I expected but is obviously not a number Warner wants to see when releasing a $200 million dollar blockbuster.
So with that relative failure out of the way, Wonder Woman 1984 is probably slipping into a November release. The film is currently scheduled for an October 2, 2020, premiere, but Deadline is purporting that Warner will be making an announcement soon. With that shift in date comes Dune’s delay, which will push it into 2021.
Previously, the Denis Villeneuve directed sci-fi remake was slated for December 18, 2020, but that is now looking incredibly unlikely. The recently released trailer doesn’t contain any actual release information, so this claim holds up to some scrutiny. Warner likely didn’t want to commit to a date it knew it would be pushing back in mere days.
Warner certainly has options when it comes to releasing its holiday projects. Wonder Woman 1984 could copy Disney’s strategy of releasing Mulan onto its streaming platform and go ahead with already planned international theatrical runs (which may work in its favor if Disney delays Black Widow). Overseas, Tenet managed a $132 million take, so that might be plausible. Dune could also follow a similar plan, though Warner could use the extra time to polish up any VFX.
At any rate, we’re likely going to be waiting longer for Wonder Woman’s return.
Source: Deadline
