It’s an interesting life as a DC Films fan as The Batman is currently crushing it at the box office. Warner Bros has decided to change their release schedule entirely and to be fair, for understandable reasons.
It does prove with this studio that it doesn’t matter what marketing they put out into the world until we’re sitting through the end credits, it hasn’t happened. In many ways, it’s similar to being a Tottenham Hotspur supporter.
Because we all know, even with a 5-0 lead in a game with 10 minutes to go, until the final whistle blows, we still have the potential for ballsing it all up.
What I’m trying to say is that despite how great their trailer highlighting the DC movies coming out in 2022, it was utterly meaningless.
As this week, Warner Bros announced several high profile projects were being shifted around.
The first was revealed by Dwayne Johnson telling his fans on Instagram that his highly anticipated WB/New Line superhero film Black Adam is moving to October 21 this year instead of coming out on July 29.
This was the most surprising as Black Adam had all the hallmarks of being a massive summer blockbuster success for Warner Bros as now that July date will be taken up by Johnson’s other DC flick, DC League of Super-Pets, moving away from their May 20 date.
A move that could still turn out to be a box office win for the studio, given it’s an animated movie so that kids can see it in the heart of summer. I can’t see it making the same money Black Adam potentially could’ve done.
Other changes include Ezra Miller’s The Flash, moving for the 900th time, from November 4, 2022 to June 23, 2023 and the Jason Momoa led Aquaman and the Lost Kingdom to March 17, 2023 from December 16, 2022.
Moving the Aquaman sequel was always likely considering it was going against James Cameron’s Avatar 2, which is reportedly taking place underwater and this move means everyone can make money.
According to The Hollywood Reporter, insiders have told them the delays are down to COVID delaying visual effect houses to complete their work on some of these projects.
You can only imagine the amount of VFX work The Flash and Aquaman need, and with a couple of more mouths added on, it’ll make everyone’s lives a bit less stressful and be a better end product.
The studio did move a movie up the calendar as New Line’s Shazam! Fury of the Gods will now take the vacant Aquaman date and open on Dec 16 and go head-to-head against Avatar 2.
This could be a brilliant business move from Warners as it’s the perfect counterprogramming. So if people can’t see Cameron’s epic until later that day and have time to spare, they can watch David F. Sandberg’s superhero family comedy.
What could so be beneficial is Sandberg revealing this Shazam! sequel is a summer movie, and audiences might want to get away from the cold winter and enjoy some sunshine. A move I believe WB should’ve done for In The Heights last year.
Two other moves were Timothée Chalamet’s Wonka from March 17, 2023 to December 15, 2023, which could work as a winter release than a spring. Finally, Jason Statham is back to fight a shark in Meg 2: The Trench opening August 4, 2023.
While it’s bumming to see The Flash move and the potential knock-on effect to Batgirl, both feature Michael Keaton. The positive is if Batgirl does move, it could move platforms from an HBO Max release to a theatre big-screen release as there’s potential to be a box office success if it had an August/September 2023 date.
The Bear Cave 