A Quiet Place - Part II trailer screen shot
Paramount Pictures

The hits keep coming, and Paramount Pictures’ ‘A Quiet Place – Part II’ is the latest movie that has been postponed due to the coronavirus.  Director John Krasinski made the announcement on Twitter on Thursday morning, stating:

“One of the things I’m most proud of is that people have said our movie is one you have to see all together.  Well due to the ever-changing circumstances of what’s going on in the world around us, now is clearly not the right time to do that. As insanely excited as we are for all of you to see this movie… I’m gonna wait to release the film til we CAN all see it together! So here’s to our group movie date! See you soon!”

Paramount followed up with a statement of their own:

“After much consideration, and in light of the ongoing and developing situation concerning coronavirus and restrictions on global travel and public gatherings, Paramount Pictures will be moving the worldwide release of ‘A Quiet Place Part II.’  We believe in and support the theatrical experience, and we look forward to bringing this film to audiences this year once we have a better understanding of the impact of this pandemic on the global theatrical marketplace.”

A new release date has not yet been announced.

The 25th James Bond picture, ‘No Time To Die’ was the first to flinch, moving to November.  ‘Peter Rabbit 2: The Runaway’ was intended to open around Easter, but it is now hopping into theaters in August.  Disney has shifted two other bigger projects, ‘Mulan’ and ‘New Mutants’.  ‘New Mutants’ has already been delayed multiple times, and for a while, it seemed as though it would never get released.  (That may still be the case.)

Other smaller movies that have been delayed, indefinitely in most cases, include the Issa Raye/Kumail Nanjiani comedy ‘The Lovebirds’, another Paramount project, the British import ‘Blue Story’, ‘The Artist’s Wife’, ‘The Truth’, and horror movie ‘Antlers’.

The most drastic delay comes to ‘Fast and Furious 9’, which has been pushed back to next year!  It was supposed to come out on May 22 of this year, but will now squeal into theaters on April 2, 2021.

 

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Obviously, the first concern when it comes to the COVID-19 pandemic is gathering in large groups, which would allow the disease to be transmitted from person to person.  But beyond that, in the case of the bigger films, obviously there is a big financial factor– these are expensive movies and they need people to pay to see them, and not just in the U.S.  China is the second-largest market for American films, and that country is where the coronavirus seems to have originated and has basically been shut down.  Italy has also essentially been shut down.  And now in the U.S., in some places, no more than 100 people are allowed to gather in one place.

So it makes sense for the studios to delay releasing these movies to a time when people will actually be able to gather and see them in public without the threat of a potentially lethal illness.  And while some of these movies are smaller, they still want to reach as large an audience as they can, even if those numbers aren’t on the ‘Fast and Furious’ level.

Obviously, check back to find out when you can actually see ‘A Quiet Place – Part II’ in theaters.