BREAKING: Don’t count on Sony Animation’s Lord & Miller movie Connected for this fall. The feature joins a number of other features fleeing the immediate fall calendar or delaying until later in the year, or even in 2021. Connected, last scheduled for Oct. 23, is now being moved by the studio to an unset future date this year.
Studios saw what Tenet‘s (and other films’) grosses were like without New York and Los Angeles, and both cities are required to be part of a tentpole’s marketing blitz; hence the meltdown of the immediate theatrical fall schedule. Connected joins Wonder Woman 1984 which was recently delayed from Oct. 2 to Christmas Day, STX’s Greenland, which moved to a TBD 4Q date after stepping off of its Sept. 25 release, and Universal/MGM’s Candyman which jumped from Oct. 16 to next year TBD as notable delayed releases. Also, we’re waiting to see where Disney pushes Black Widow and Soul on the calendar. Connected leaves 20th Century Studios and Disney’s Death on the Nile as the only wide entry for Oct. 23 — unless it moves.
Connected is directed by Michael Rianda and co-directed by Jeff Rowe and follows Katie Mitchell (Abbi Jacobson) who is accepted into the film school of her dreams. Her whole family drives Katie to school together when their plans are interrupted by a tech uprising, and the entire family works together to save the world. Producers are Phil Lord, Christopher Miller and Kurt Albrecht. Danny McBride, Maya Rudolph, Eric Andre and Olivia Colman also star as the voice cast.
Last weekend, Sony released the Tri-Star YA romantic comedy The Broken Hearts Gallery and with the fractured exhibition infrastructure during the pandemic with only 70% of all theaters open, the pic has only made $1.5M to date at 2,209 locations.
Sony does have a couple of moderate indie releases on the fall schedule: The Last Shift on Sept. 25 and Yellow Rose on Oct. 9.
Monday’s NRG data regarding how comfortable parents are taking their children back to movie theaters — it’s all over the place. Those who are very or somewhat comfortable are at a robust 98% as well as 78% among eager explorers, those who will return promptly with the proper safety protocols at their local theater. However, social skeptics, that demographic that requires prodding from a medical expert to head to the cinema, they’re at 34% very or somewhat comfortable and 66% not comfortable/not taking my kid to a movie theater.
Here’s how the wide release fall schedule is shaping up. The below schedule does not count moderate theatrical releases. There aren’t any wide releases for the next three weekends.
October 9
Honest Thief (Open Road/Briarcliff)
War With Grandpa (101 Studios)
October 16
2 Hearts (Freestyle)
October 23
Death on the Nile (20th/Disney)
October 30
Fatale (Lionsgate)
November 6
Black Widow (Disney)–Subject to move
Let Him Go (Focus Features)
November 13
The Comeback Trail (Cloudburst)
Freaky (Universal/Blumhouse)
Deep Water (20th/Disney)
November 20
No Time to Die (MGM)
Soul (Disney)—Subject to move
November 25
The Croods: A New Age (Universal/DreamWorks Animation)
Voyagers (Lionsgate)
Happiest Season (Sony)
December 4
The Empty Man (20th/Disney)
December 11
Free Guy (20th/Disney)
December 18
Coming to America 2 (Paramount)
West Side Story (20th/Amblin/Disney)
Dune (Warner Bros/Legendary)
December 25
Wonder Woman 1984 (Warner Bros)
News of the World (Universal)
December 30
Escape Room 2 (Sony)