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Universal Delays Minions 2 & Moves More 2021 Movies
Minions: The Rise of Gru gets a new summer 2021 release date as Universal shuffles their upcoming slate in the wake of the coronavirus pandemic. The worldwide spread of COVID-19 made an unprecedented impact on the entertainment industry, with film productions shut down and movie premieres indefinitely delayed. Due to the fluidity of the situation, there's no telling when things will get back to normal. The expectation is the delayed productions won't be able to resume until mid-May and people are hoping theaters can reopen in June, but both of those windows seem very optimistic given the current state of the crisis.
One of the many 2020 titles to be affected is Universal's Minions: The Rise of Gru, which was originally set to open in early July. Because Illumination had to close their France studios in response to the pandemic, the studio was unable to complete the movie on time, forcing Universal to move it. Now, the project officially has a new date, which also has a domino effect on other future Universal movies.
Today, Universal announced Minions: The Rise of Gru will now open on July 2, 2021. That date was previously reserved for animated sequel Sing 2, which has been moved to December 22, 2021. Universal's adaptation of Wicked was supposed to open in December 2021, but is now off the calendar completely and will be rescheduled at a later time.
The new dates should serve both Minions 2 and Sing 2 very well. In the case of the former, it will still be one of Universal's big summer draws, playing in a window where the Despicable Me franchise has seen plenty of success in years past. Seeing that the first Minions spinoff grossed over $1 billion worldwide, it makes sense Universal would want to keep the followup in the summer. As for Sing 2, the original Sing was an impressive hit in December 2016, holding its own against Rogue One and earning $634.1 million globally. The hope is the sequel will be able to replicate that performance during next year's holiday season, but that won't be an easy task. Sing 2 is set to go up against the likes of Avatar 2, Black Adam, and fellow animated family film Hotel Transylvania 4 - though it is possible any of those projects will be moved as Hollywood looks to bounce back from the pandemic.
Universal's recent rescheduling is an illustration of how the effects of coronavirus will be felt throughout the film & TV industry for the next couple of years. Sing 2 and Wicked are hardly the only 2021 movies affected; Fast & Furious 10 now needs a new date since F9 moved to its April 2021 window, and it's possible in-production tentpoles like The Matrix 4 and The Batman won't be able to meet their planned release dates. That only scratches the surface, considering the sheer number of movies that have been postponed over the past few weeks. When business is up and running again, the studios will have their work cut out for them figuring out what do to with their films.
