Paramount Pictures have announced delays to some of their key upcoming blockbusters in the wake of of the Omicron coronavrius variant. First, the studio has pushed back the two Mission: Impossible sequels that are being shot back-to-back, to 2023 and 2024, respectively.
The films, the seventh and eighth in the franchise, were originally scheduled for September 2022 and July 2023 releases. They will now arrive July 14, 2023 and June 28, 2024, respectively. Incredibly, the seventh film was at one point expected to hit cinemas in July 2021, but that obviously did not happen, except maybe in an alternate dimension.
The untitled spinoff to A Quiet Place has also been delayed, but only six months. Originally scheduled for a March 2023 release, the film will now arrive on September 22, 2023.
This is not the first time the Quiet Place franchise has been affected by the pandemic, as A Quiet Place Part II was originally supposed to arrive in March 2020, which was unfortunately the month COVID-19 began to spread worldwide.
That film was ultimately released over a year later, May 2021, and actually performed well at the box office, making almost $300 million worldwide. That performance likely led to spinoff being commissioned in the first place. Jeff Nichols (Take Shelter) was originally attached to direct, but left the project amicably, being replaced by Michael Sarnoski (Pig).
Studios obviously value their biggest franchises and want them to make as much money as possible, so these decisions aren’t particularly surprising. The question now becomes how long Paramount and other studios are willing to delay their biggest films if coronavirus continues to wreak havoc.
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