With barely a week going by right now where a major movie doesn’t get pushed back, now it’s the turn of Ghosbuters: Afterlife to run into further delays.
Via Deadline, Ghostbuster: Afterlife has once again seen its release date moved back by Sony Pictures. Originally, Afterlife was set for a July 10, 2020 release, then it was shunted to March 5, 2021 – and now the movie has been pushed back to June 11, 2021.
The official word on Ghostbusters: Afterlife reads:
From director Jason Reitman and producer Ivan Reitman, comes the next chapter in the original Ghostbusters universe. In Ghostbusters: Afterlife, when a single mom and her two kids arrive in a small town, they begin to discover their connection to the original ghostbusters and the secret legacy their grandfather left behind.
In terms of the cast, Ghostbusters: Afterlife has quite the impressive ensemble. Joining original franchise stars Bill Murray, Dan Aykroyd, Ernie Hudson, and Sigourney Weaver are Carrie Coon, Finn Wolfhard, Paul Rudd, and Mckenna Grace.
Of course, Ghostbusters: Afterlife isn’t the first movie to be delayed this year, and sadly the film will not be the last.
Right now, it’s a tough time for all involved in the film industry. Just yesterday, we saw Cineworld and Picturehouse cinemas all close indefinitely. With people hesitant to visit the cinema at the moment, that in turn has seen studios hold off on releasing their big-budget movies due to having no way of making any semblance of profit. And, in an egg and chicken situation, with no big-budget movies in cinemas, people are not visiting said cinemas.
MGM’s No Time to Die is one of the many heavy hitters to be delayed until at least next year, and this follows the likes of Black Widow, Wonder Woman: 1984, Top Gun: Maverick, Venom: Let There be Carnage, The Batman, The Flash, Shazam! Fury of the Gods, and Black Adam as just a select few films pulled from 2020 silver screen releases.
With recent offerings such as Mulan and Bill & Ted Face the Music, we’ve seen some studios opt to release films direct to digital, although this again realistically means that these pictures aren’t able to make anywhere near the money that they would’ve with a full cinema release in usual times.
Christopher Nolan’s Tenet is the example that all are seemingly looking at right now, with that $200 million+ movie getting a cinema release earlier this year. While many had initially predicted that film to be pushing the $1 billion mark at the box office, the times we’re in at the moment saw Tenet struggle to a global box office haul in the region of $300 million.
As mentioned, the very future of cinema and the concept of big-budget movies is up in the air right now – whether that’s from money rich studios, to international cinema chains, to small arthouse cinemas, to the staff working in those venues.