Sony shifted its entire theatrical slate on Friday as a result of Hollywood’s double strike, among other factors.
Most notably, Spider-Man: Beyond the Spider-Verse has been removed from the calendar entirely after being slated to open on March 29, 2024, though such a move was not entirely unexpected, as a Vulture piece about Spider-Verse animators indicated that Beyond would never make its release date. The prior film, Across the Spider-Verse, grossed nearly $700 million worldwide earlier this summer, and Hailee Steinfeld, who voices Gwen Stacy, told THR in June that voice work had yet to be recorded for Beyond.
Sony is currently weighing several different release dates for Beyond the Spider-Verse depending on how long the SAG-AFTRA strike lasts, but it’s not the only movie that was removed from the calendar entirely, as Sony also unlisted the Blumhouse thriller They Listen, which was slated to open on Aug. 30, 2024. John Cho and Katherine Waterson star.
That release date was instead assigned to Kraven the Hunter, which had been slated to open on Oct. 6 and was instead delayed 10 months. The Aaron Taylor-Johnson movie will now open next year over Labor Day weekend, which is a bad sign for the comic book movie, as that’s traditionally considered one of the worst weekends of the year to release a new film since audiences are more interested in soaking up the last rays of summer. A delay of several months would hardly have raised any eyebrows, but a delay of nearly a full year? Yikes. At least the R-rated Kraven will get a boost from advertising throughout the summer movie season.
Another Sony tentpole that was pushed back was the Jason Reitman-produced sequel to Ghostbusters: Afterlife, which is moving from Dec. 20, 2023, to March 29, 2024, so it’ll open over Easter weekend. Sony sure does like its holiday weekends, as the studio will also release a fourth Bad Boys movie over Father’s Day weekend on June 14, 2024, and it has moved up Madame Web two days so that the Dakota Johnson-led comic book movie will now open on Valentine’s Day next year.
Elsewhere on the Marvel front, Sony announced it will release a third Venom movie on July 12, 2024, with Juno Temple joining Tom Hardy. Cameras had begun rolling in Spain when the strike began, forcing production to shut down.
As far as the impact of the strike goes, Sony is unable to rely on David Harbour and Orlando Bloom to promote Gran Turismo, so it’s turning to audiences themselves. The racing movie is moving from Aug. 11 to Aug. 25, but it’ll have sneak previews over the preceding two weekends of Aug. 11 and Aug. 18, so think of it as a platform release of sorts.
“The stars can’t promote the film but the audience can,” read a statement from Sony explaining the studio’s decision.
Sony also pushed back a new Karate Kid movie from June 7, 2024 to Dec. 13, 2024, as the strike has impacted its progress in development and a filmmaker still hasn’t been hired. The studio is, however, sticking with its release dates for The Equalizer 3 and Dumb Money, the latter of which will screen at the Toronto International Film Festival. Click here for the rest of the lineup.
