With no end in sight to the ongoing SAG-AFTRA and WGA strikes, it was only a matter of time before the studios started pushing back release dates. On Friday, Sony Pictures made a series of changes to its release schedule over the coming year, announcing release dates for undated movies and delaying others by weeks or even months (via Deadline).
Starting with the previously undated movies, Sony announced that Bad Boys 4 will bow on June 14, 2024, bringing Will Smith and Martin Lawrence back for another sequel to their long-running buddy cop series. Sony also revealed that Venom 3 will hit theaters on July 12, 2024, but given that production had just started prior to the SAG strike, this date might not stick.
As for the movies that already had release dates, it’s almost all bad news. Here are the changes to the release slate for Sony over the next several months:
- Gran Turismo was locked and loaded for August 11, but Sony opted to push the racing movie back to August 25. Instead, Sony will show sneak previews over the August 11 and August 18 weekends in an attempt to build hype for the movie. “The stars can’t promote the film but the audience can,” a Sony spokesperson said.
- Kraven the Hunter suffered a more substantial delay, as the Sony Spider-Man Universe entry will now open on August 30, 2024, instead of this October. The studio was obviously banking on Aaron Taylor-Johnson embarking on a massive promotional push in the coming months, so rather than try to sell the movie without him, Sony is going to wait.
- The untitled sequel to Ghostbusters: Afterlife was set for December 20 but is now moving to March 29, 2024. If that date sounds familiar, it’s because that’s when Sony Pictures was previously going to launch Spider-Man: Beyond the Spider-Verse.
- Madame Web, which stars Sydney Sweeney, Emma Roberts, and Dakota Johnson, moved up from February 16 to February 14.
- Sadly, Spider-Man: Beyond the Spider-Verse is now TBD. The March 2024 release date always seemed incredibly aggressive, and now that the actors can’t come in to do voiceover work, there’s no way for Sony to know when it will be ready.
- Did you know there’s another Karate Kid reboot in the works? Well, now you do, but rather than seeing it on June 7, 2024, you’ll have to wait until December 13, 2024.
- Finally, Chris Weitz’s horror movie They Listen moved from August 30, 2024, to TBD.
As exciting as this week has been for Hollywood, with both Barbie and Oppenheimer premiering to commercial success and critical acclaim, the next twelve months are going to be rough. While studios try to decide how to promote their projects without the actors that star in them, those very same actors are on the picket line with writers in an attempt to secure a fair deal with the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers (AMPTP).
Barring a sudden and surprising one-eighty from the studios that comprise the AMPTP, this will likely be the tip of the iceberg when it comes to delays.
