“Top Gun: Maverick,” a sequel to the 1986 Tom Cruise classic, will have to wait until next summer to catch the flight.
The action adventure, from Paramount and Skydance, has delayed its release date by December 23 and will now open on July 2, 2021. As part of a shake-up of the Paramount release date on Thursday night, ” A Quiet Place Part II “has also been postponed. The horror sequel, starring John Krasinski and Emily Blunt, will be released in theaters on April 23, 2021 instead of September 4.
“We truly believe that there is no movie viewing experience like that enjoyed in theaters,” said Paramount President of National Distribution Chris Aronson and President of International Theater Distribution Mark Viane. “We are committed to the theater experience and our exhibition partners, and we want to emphasize that we are confident that when the time comes, audiences everywhere will once again enjoy the unique joy of watching Paramount films on the big screen.” .
Along with Thursday’s announcement, the studio also established “Sonic the Hedgehog 2,” a follow-up to this year’s box office success, to open on April 8, 2022. Other changes to the schedule include “Jackass” (from July 2021 to September 3, 2021), “Under the Boardwalk” (July 22, 2022) and “The Tiger’s Apprentice” (February 11, 2022 to February 10, 2023).
“A Quiet Place 2” was one of the first major films to be released when coronavirus cases began to spread in the United States. It was originally scheduled to open in March, but the studio moved it to September 6 in hopes that theaters in North America will be able to resume operations before that. But the uncertainty about when movie theaters, which have been closed for nearly four months, may reopen has only intensified as the pandemic continues to escalate rapidly across the country. Earlier Thursday, AMC Theaters, the nation’s largest theater chain, again delayed its reopening plans and said it hopes to turn the lights back on before the end of August.
It is another sign that a nationwide return to filmmaking may be further delayed by a worsening public health situation. Delays in the film come days after Christopher Nolan’s sci-fi thriller “Tenet” and hours after Disney’s “Mulan” were removed from the release schedules. While those films had long been positioned to help revive movie streaming, sources say Paramount did not want “A Quiet Place Part II” to be under pressure to be the first new movie out of the door during the pandemic. .
“A Quiet Place” became a hit for Paramount when it debuted in 2018, earning $ 340 million worldwide. Krasinski returned to direct the sequel, while Emily Blunt, Millicent Simmonds, and Noah Jupe will reprise their roles from the original. “A Quiet Place Part 2” returns to see her family trapped by the limits of silence as they face the terrors of the outside world.
For “Top Gun: Maverick,” the move was due in part to scheduling conflicts for Cruise. The actor is expected to film the next two “Mission: Impossible” movies when Paramount needs him to promote “Top Gun: Maverick.” By postponing it until the following summer, he frees Cruise to embark on one of his signature global promotional campaigns to promote the film and its death-defying stunts. And getting Cruise back to the cabin 30 years later was not cheap. “Top Gun: Maverick” cost more than $ 150 million, so Paramount has robust ticket sales for a profit.
