Paramount has shuffled its release slate, pushing “Top Gun: Maverick” to a Christmas release date and set “A Quiet Place Part II” for a September release after being delayed from March.
The Tom Cruise sequel “Top Gun: Maverick” was meant to open on June 24, 2020, and it will now open Dec. 23 in wide release. John Krasinski’s “A Quiet Place Part II” will open Sept. 4 after it was pulled from its release date late last month.
“The Spongebob Movie: Sponge on the Run,” has also been delayed to July 31 after it was originally set on May 22.
Finally, “The Tomorrow War,” from director Chris McKay and starring Chris Pratt, was removed from its release date after being set for the Christmas release that is now held by “Top Gun.”
Paramount is the latest studio to shuffle its release calendar for the year after both Sony and Universal did the same with their summer tentpoles. On Monday, Sony delayed the releases of “Morbius,” “Ghostbusters: Afterlife” and “Peter Rabbit 2: The Runaway,” all to 2021. In the process, it removed the Tom Hanks WWII movie “Greyhound,” meant to open in June, from its release date, and further delayed the openings of the video game movie “Uncharted” and an untitled Sony/Marvel film.
Then Universal a day later pushed its summer film “Minions: The Rise of Gru” to open a full year later and even unset the Broadway adaptation “Wicked” from its release date in Christmas of 2021 to make way for the Illumination animated film “Sing 2.”
It could be a sign more to come from other major studios potentially writing off the summer 2020 box office and preparing for the possibility that even if movie theaters are able to welcome back audiences with reduced capacity in auditoriums by July, there will be little product to lure back moviegoers who might already be wary of returning to crowded spaces.
“Top Gun: Maverick” is directed by Joseph Kosinski and is the follow-up to the 1986 Tom Cruise blockbuster “Top Gun,” putting Cruise back in the cockpit seat as a dangerous test pilot continuing to push air speed limits even as the military hopes to ground him. The film also stars Jennifer Connelly, Val Kilmer, Jon Hamm, Ed Harris, Miles Teller and Glen Powell.
“A Quiet Place Part II” is the sequel to the horror thriller from 2018 that starred Emily Blunt, John Krasinski, Millicent Simmonds and Noah Jupe as a family that lives in complete in order to evade detection from vicious alien invaders. The original film made $340 million worldwide on a $17 million budget.
The animated “Spongebob Movie: Sponge on the Run” is based on the popular Nickelodeon cartoon and is directed by Tim Hill and also features Keanu Reeves, Awkwafina and Snoop Dogg.
Some of the other titles on Paramount’s fall release slate for the remainder of this year include Aaron Sorkin’s “The Trial of the Chicago 7,” the “GI Joe” spinoff movie “Snake Eyes,” “Clifford the Big Red Dog” and “Coming 2 America” starring Eddie Murphy.
Paramount already released its blockbuster from earlier this year, “Sonic the Hedgehog,” on digital after its theatrical release, including a planned opening in China, was cut short due to the coronavirus. What’s more, Paramount’s comedy “The Lovebirds” that was meant to premiere at SXSW and then open in the spring, was also acquired by Netflix in lieu of a theatrical release.