Disney+ Black Widow (2021) (1 Viewer)

[Jake Lipson]

They realized the seriousness of the situation, and acted accordingly.

I agree with your sentiment, but what is bizarre is their insistence that Soul is staying as a theatrical release on November 20. The seriousness of the situation also applies to Pixar movies. Not sure what's going on with that. We'll see.

 

[Jake Lipson]

I have to wonder, though, if a six-month delay will do the trick.

If Dr. Fauci is correct in his assertion that it could be a year from now before theaters are safe again, pushing it to May won't make a difference.

Baby steps?

 

[Robert Crawford]

I have to wonder, though, if a six-month delay will do the trick.

If Dr. Fauci is correct in his assertion that it could be a year from now before theaters are safe again, pushing it to May won't make a difference.

Baby steps?

It's not like they can't move the release date once more.

 

[Jake Lipson]

It's not like they can't move the release date once more.

Right.

It's just that only pushing it to May feels a little optimistic.

I'd love to be able to see it safely in May. Just saying.

 

[Josh Steinberg]

There are probably other factors at play that make it necessary from a business perspective to give it a date, even if it’s not guaranteed to hold. If they concede that they don’t think they can release anything for more than a year from now, their stock price could take a bigger hit. By putting a spring date out there, investors are more likely to reward them for their positive outlook and potential recovery.

 

[Tino]

I think the Tenet fiasco has influenced many of these decisions.

 

[Sean Bryan]

Yes, this is not surprising at all. I excepted it to be moved, and it didn’t seem like moving to February would be a good idea. Pushing everything back an entire year aligns more with the reality of the year+ of pandemic setbacks.

Sure, depending on how soon vaccines are available to the general population and how that all unfolds it’s possible they may need to consider another delay. But May is still a realistic goal.

But it’s too bad that this could mean not getting Falcon and the Winter Soldier until next Summer (if the speculation is true that something/someone from BW factors into the series).

 

[TravisR]

I think the Tenet fiasco has influenced many of these decisions.

Yeah, unless Tenet had done spectacular, I think most of the major tentpoles like Black Widow would have still been delayed but the studios would have kept putting out midrange stuff like Candyman or Death On The Nile, etc.

 

[Jake Lipson]

But it’s too bad that this could mean not getting Falcon and the Winter Soldier until next Summer (if the speculation is true that something/someone from BW factors into the series).

I haven't heard that. But my guess is Disney+ will want that as soon as they can get it. Feige is smart enough to rearrange things so that it could come out first if that's what they want to do.

This morning's release date shuffles include Shang-Chi jumping before The Eternals in the release order, so they are certainly adaptable. Also, Doctor Strange 2 was supposed to come out before Thor 4, but those switched places. WandaVision was going to be after F&WS, but its is now going first. They'll make adjustments if need be.

Both F&WS and Loki have resumed production, so it's possible they could put Loki first if they have something tied to Black Widow in F&WS that is so essential in F&WS that it can't be changed.

 

[Jake Lipson]

William Hurt talked a little about Ross' role in Black Widow:

William Hurt Talks About General 'Thunderbolt' Ross' Role In Black Widow

Actor William Hurt shares his insight into General Ross' motivations for targeting Black Widow in the upcoming Marvel movie.

www.superherohype.com

 

[Keith Cobby]

I expect BW will be streamed following the WW news. At this rate there will be nothing for cinemas to show when (if) they eventually reopen.

 

[Sam Favate]

I expect BW will be streamed following the WW news. At this rate there will be nothing for cinemas to show when (if) they eventually reopen.

Don't count on that. Disney has committed to a May release, and unless things take a dramatic turn for the worse and the coming vaccines don't work, I do expect socially distanced theaters to be open in enough places by May to make it worthwhile.

 

[TravisR]

Don't count on that. Disney has committed to a May release, and unless things take a dramatic turn for the worse and the coming vaccines don't work, I do expect socially distanced theaters to be open in enough places by May to make it worthwhile.

Agreed. I can't imagine Disney not wanting to get money from a hopefully rebounding box office in May. Since neither Soul or Wonder Woman are doing it, it seems like the "You also have to pay $20"-model didn't earn enough for Mulan to have that become standard so that means that studios need to keep relying on theaters to make money.

 

[Adam Lenhardt]

There's also a PR angle to consider; Wonder Woman 1984 going direct to streaming is a decision made from a position of strength; the first movie was the first really successful female-led solo picture. There's no question that it would have made bank at the box office with a conventional theatrical release had COVID-19 not happened.

But Black Widow is the first solo picture for the MCU's first major female superhero -- a solo picture that many felt was long overdue. If it gets dumped onto Disney+, it will resurrect some of the criticisms that were floating around before Captain Marvel.

There's also the pragmatic issue of relaunching the MCU at the box office once this pandemic nightmare ends. Of the initial Phase 4 titles, Black Widow is the only one centered around an established character. I'm skeptical that the third Spider-Man Home-something movie will stick to its December 2021 date, which means without Black Widow Marvel would go a second year without any sure thing titles.

 

[Sean Bryan]

Very recently, Marvel Studios executive vice president Victoria Alonso stated this about Black Widow releasing on Disney+.

"It seems to me that our films are films for theatrical distribution. We always said that we believe in different formats, and it is very important to maintain the custom, the tradition, of watching certain films in community."

"With Avengers: Endgame we did as usual: every Friday before a movie comes out, we go to see it with people who had never seen it. If you see it with those 500 people, or the 1,000 people, or the 100 people who were in the cinema, what you feel when you see that movie with other people is something very different from what one can feel in the living room with the four, five or six people who live in your house."


Since this has already been moved to May 2021 I’m hoping that it stays there. I want to see this in the theater and I don’t want to have a odd (IMO) release situation like with Wonder Woman. Between now and May we will have WandaVision, Falcon and The Winter Soldier (if there are no cinematic universe storytelling reasons to hold that back until Black Widow has been released), and possibly Loki. And these were all made to be shown episodically, likely weekly, on Disney+. But Black Widow wasn’t meant to premiere there.

I can’t think of a better way to celebrate transitioning out of the darkness of this pandemic and back to normalcy than by going to see a big MARVEL movie in a theater on the first weekend of May.

 

[Jake Lipson]

I can’t think of a better way to celebrate transitioning out of the darkness of this pandemic and back to normalcy than by going to see a big MARVEL movie in a theater on the first weekend of May.

I'd love for that to be practical. However, I am not convinced that a vaccine will be widely distributed enough by May that it will be safe for that to happen. There were over 4,000 new cases reported in the state here yesterday. Right now, it feels to me as though the virus is still in charge. Until it isn't, I'm not going to the theater.

If Disney actually wants to put out Black Widow as a theatrical release when it would make substantially less than it normally would and make everyone else wait for it, then that is their right since it is their movie and they can determine how and when they want it to be released.

The reason I like how Wonder Woman is being released because those who feel safe going to the theater get to have that option, and those of us who don't can watch it at home without fear of weaponized spoilers ruining it for us. Of course I would see it in a movie theater if the pandemic wasn't an issue, but unfortunately there's just no way I think this will be resolved by May. Therefore, it wouldn't be the worst idea in the world if Disney used the same strategy for Black Widow that Warner Bros. is implementing for Wonder Woman. Of course it wasn't intended to premiere there, but neither was Soul or Mulan and they did it. Plans can absolutely change.

Deadline has an article today about how Disney is considering shifting Cruella (which currently has a May 2021 release date), as well as the upcoming remakes of Pinocchio and Peter Pan, to Disney+ due to the pandemic. The article does say that Black Widow is not being considered for Disney+. But if they are considering Disney+ for Cruella, which currently has a later Black Widow does, then I would not consider a theatrical release in May to be a sure thing.

This sucks. I miss the theater.

But I know my body and do not believe I would survive if I got COVID, so for the time being I am staying home.

 

[Jeff Cooper]

The MCU does have a lot of content coming out for the streaming audience though, so there won't be the feeling of an empty hole should they decide to hold Black Widow back for theaters only.

 

[Jake Lipson]

A leaked still from what appears to be a new Disney+ ad suggests that Disney might be taking Black Widow straight to Disney+ in April. Obviously, this is not confirmed and should be taken with a large grain of salt.

Black Widow Is Going Direct To Streaming, Revealed In Leaked Promo

An unofficial leaked video may have given fans an answer as to when they can see the highly-anticipated Black Widow movie on Disney+.

www.giantfreakinrobot.com

That being said, if the pandemic does not improve to a point where the box office has recovered before its next release date, this would not surprise me much at this point. We'll see.

 

[Sam Favate]

I’m pretty sure the D+18+ thing has been debunked. It has too many holes in it, not least of which is that Falcon & Winter Soldier would drop in August. If you recall, it was originally said to be coming in Aug 2020, but it is not expected to wait a full year to debut now. It will likely come out closer to the release of Black Widow in the spring. Another show, perhaps Loki, will debut in the late summer/early fall in the lead- up to the Eternals.

Of course, anything can change depending on how the virus is affecting our lives in the spring, whether the coming vaccines will work as the pharmas say they will and the government and the various states’ plans for distribution. But all of those variables aside, I don’t believe this trailer is real.

 

[Josh Steinberg]

I doubt the trailer is real but I do think it’s true that Disney is exploring what to do with all of the PG-13/R/TV-MA content they control that doesn’t fit neatly within the Disney+ branding. I know the original plan was to use Hulu for all of that content but Hulu doesn’t have the subscriber base or technical quality that D+ has, so I wouldn’t be surprised if it was true that they were looking into how best to exploit that content.