As often happens in the entertainment industry, one movie getting its release date moved causes a string of reactions of movies doing the same. Lately, though, the jostling for big box office returns is more about whether theaters are open and people feel safe in returning to darkened theaters inside with strangers than anything.
The movie industry has largely been on pause since mid-March, causing havoc on the release calendar. But early hopes for a return to theaters by July seem largely dashed in the final days of June. Friday’s news that Tenet was delayed again, this time to mid-August, meant that other movies would shuffle as well.
And indeed, Variety reported that Disney’s live-action Mulan remake was delayed a third time, to August 21. Another movie that was actually pushed up to be released as theaters opened, Russell Crowe’s Unhinged, also saw another delay to July 31, per The Hollywood Reporter. That movie was originally supposed to hit theaters in September but was announced for July 1 in an attempt to be the first nationwide release to hit cinemas since they shut down the industry in March. But as theater reopening dates slowly slipped back in the calendar, Unhinged was pressed to July 10 and now sits on the month’s final day.
The Broken Hearts Gallery, in fact, may be the last large-release movie standing in the middle of July. Deadline reported on June 16 that the prior Tenet delay pushed Broken Hearts back to a July 17 release date. Tenet, Mulan, and Unhinged have all been delayed again since that, but there’s been no update on Broken Hearts. It seems inevitable that it, too, gets a delay at this point, but nothing is official until it has a new date.
Theaters themselves are still supposed to open in July, though as COVID-19 cases rise in dozens of states and some slow their shutdowns it remains unclear if they’re still on that trajectory when we actually get there. Right now, Unhinged on July 31 would likely be the first big movie released, if theaters are, indeed, open. Until then, there’s still plenty to watch on your streaming devices at home.
