woke disney DELAYS release of major films by years as it cuts spending

[The_King]

The Walt Disney Co. has announced a major shakeup in the release schedule for some its biggest movie franchises, pushing back the next installments of Avatar and Star Wars.

Disney on Tuesday pushed back the release of Avatar 3 a year, bumping it from December 2024 to December 2025, while making other tweaks to the release schedules for Marvel and Star Wars films.

For further planned installments of Avatar, the timeline stretched out even further, with Avatar 4 now slated to hit theaters in December 2029, and Avatar 5 scheduled for December 2031.

As well, the next Star Wars film was pushed from December 2025 to May 2026, and Disney added another movie in the franchise for December 2026. The studio hasn't announced details on either untitled production.

Disney did not offer a reason for the delays, though the ongoing Hollywood writers strike may have disrupted some projects, and the company is also seeking to boost profits through deep cost cuts.
 

Disney on Tuesday pushed the release of Avatar 3 a year, to December 2025. Avatar 4 is now slated to hit theaters in December 2029; Avatar 5 is set to arrive in December 2031
 

The next Star Wars film was pushed from December 2025 to May 2026, and Disney added another film in the franchise for December 2026. The studio hasn't announced details on either untitled production

Disney CEO Bob Iger has set a goal of slashing annual costs by $5.5 billion, including a $3 billion reduction in spending on non-sports content.

The Marvel calendar was also remade Tuesday, as the Disney-owned studio continues to reshape its plans for the next phases of the sprawling superhero saga.

Most notably, Avengers: Kang Dynasty is being pushed back one year, from May 2025 to May 2026.

That film, a pivotal release for Marvel, stars Jonathan Majors, the actor who was charged with domestic violence in March. Majors' attorney has denied the charges and says he's innocent.

Majors was first introduced as the franchise's new supervillain Kang in the streaming series Loki, and also appeared in the recent film Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania.

Avengers: Secret Wars was likewise pushed back by one year, from May 2026 to May 2027.

Other shifts in Marvel releases include a number of films being delayed a few months.

Captain America: Brave New World will open in July 2024 instead of May 2024, after which comes Thunderbolts in December 2024, Blade in February 2025 and Fantastic Four in May 2025.

One Marvel movie, a Deadpool sequel starring Ryan Reynolds, will be released sooner than expected. It will reach theaters in May 2024, rather than November 2024.
 

Disney CEO Bob Iger has set a goal of slashing annual costs by $5.5 billion, including a $3 billion reduction in spending on non-sports content
 

Avengers: Kang Dynasty is being pushed back one year, to May 2026. Star Johnathan Majors, who plays the supervillain Kang, was recently charged with domestic violence
 

Deadpool 3, starring Ryan Reynolds, saw its released date moved up several months, to May 2024. The movie will merge Deadpool into the Marvel Cinematic Universe

New MCU release dates

DEADPOOL 3: Previously dated on 11/8/24 moves to 5/3/24

CAPTAIN AMERICA: BRAVE NEW WORLD: Previously dated on 5/3/24 moves to 7/26/24

THUNDERBOLTS: Previously dated on 7/26/24 moves to 12/20/24

BLADE: Previously dated on 9/6/24 moves to 2/14/25

FANTASTIC FOUR: Previously dated on 2/14/25 moves to 5/2/25

AVENGERS: THE KANG DYNASTY: Previously dated on 5/2/25 moves to 5/1/26

AVENGERS: SECRET WARS: Previously dated 5/1/26 moves to 5/7/27

Following Disney's acquisition of 20th Century, Deadpool's film rights, as well as those of X-Men and the Fantastic Four, were returned to Marvel Studios.

The next Deadpool film, which remains untitled, will merge the character into the Marvel Cinematic Universe.

Also from Disney's 20th Century, another Alien film is now on the calendar, dated for August next year.

The changes to the Avatar release schedule, if they hold, would mean the film series will have stretched across the first four decades of the century by its fifth chapter.

Director James Cameron, who launched Avatar in 2009, has said he may not direct films 4 and 5.

By December 2031, the target date for Avatar 5, the now 68-year-old Cameron would be 77.

Avatar and its sequel, Avatar: The Way of Water, have collectively made more than $5.2 billion at the box office.

Avatar producer Jon Landau wrote on Twitter Tuesday that the filmmakers needed more time to complete the third, fourth and fifth installments in the science-fiction series set on the fictional moon of Pandora.

'Each Avatar film is an exciting but epic undertaking that takes time to bring to the quality level we as filmmakers strive for and audiences have come to expect,' Landau wrote.

'The team is hard at work and can't wait to bring audiences back to Pandora in December 2025.'
 

In an unusual move, Avatar: The Way of Water was released for streaming simultaneously on Disney+ and rival platform Max on June 7

In an unusual move, Avatar: The Way of Water was released for streaming simultaneously on Disney+ and rival platform Max on June 7.

The joint streaming release is the product of a deal that allows Max, owned by Warner Bros. Discovery, to share streaming windows with Disney+ and Hulu for half the studio's titles through the 2022 release year.

According to data from Samba TV shared with DailyMail.com, 2.6 million US households watched Avatar: The Way of Water on Disney+ and Max during the first five days of its streaming release.

'The unique dual release of the film simultaneously on two of the leading streaming platforms, as well as its appeal to diverse audiences including black and Hispanic households, likely helped drive the initial surge in viewership,' said Cole Strain, VP of Measurement Products at Samba TV.

Black and Hispanic households both over-indexed based on viewership of Avatar: The Way of Water by 10 percent and 9 percent respectively, compared to the national average, according to the audience measurement firm.

[ODACHEK]

No worries, moi watch moobees at bukit timah hills...

[Homelander]

Too much woke elements in their movies liao...should tone down a bit...not everything needs to be woke