Your Tom Cruise fix is going to have to wait a bit longer.
Paramount Pictures on Wednesday moved back the release dates for Cruise’s next two films yet again, due to concerns that COVID-19 will continue to hurt the movie-theater business. “Top Gun: Maverick,” which was expected to premiere Nov. 19, was pushed back to May 27, 2022 — next Memorial Day weekend — while “Mission: Impossible 7” was moved from that date to Sept. 30, 2022.
Paramount, which is owned by ViacomCBS Inc. VIAC, -0.10%, also delayed “Jackass Forever,” from Oct. 22 to Feb. 4, 2022.
The moves blew up hopes that the movie industry would return to a sense of normalcy anytime soon. A number of big-name movies have been delayed — often multiple times — or moved to streaming services due to the pandemic’s effect on movie theaters. While most theaters in the U.S. are open again, crowds have not returned to pre-pandemic levels, and the recent delta surge seems to be discouraging people from going to the movies.
Big-name movies that have opened exclusively in theaters have seen mostly disappointing box-office earnings, and there have been complaints that movies that premiered on streaming services — or streamed the same day they hit theaters — have made significantly less money than they would have in pre-pandemic times. Actress Scarlett Johansson sued Disney earlier this summer, claiming her salary for Marvel’s “Black Widow” was unfairly less because the movie streamed on Disney+ the same day it debuted in theaters.
The “Top Gun” sequel had originally been scheduled for a summer 2019 release, but was delayed a year for production reasons. But then the pandemic hit, and its release was pushed back to December 2020, then July 2021, then November 2021.
A number of other blockbuster movies appear to be on track for a fall release — as of now, at least. Sony SONY, +1.28% recently pushed back the release of the supervillain sequel “Venom: Let There Be Carnage” from Sept. 24 to Oct. 15; MGM’s latest James Bond installment, “No Time to Die,” is scheduled for an Oct. 8 release; Disney’s DIS, +1.20% “Eternals” is scheduled for Nov. 5; and Sony on Wednesday moved “Ghostbusters: Afterlife” back a week to Nov. 19, which “Top Gun” had vacated. AT&T’s T, -0.84% Warner Bros. is also set to release “Dune” on Oct. 22, but that will simultaneously stream on HBO Max.