Black Widow And Other Disney Movies Unlikely To Be Delayed Amid Coronavirus Concerns

One of the biggest movies of 2020, No Time To Die, was delayed by six months due to concerns around COVID-19. The delay of this movie has prompted questions about whether other studios will follow suit and push back their films. One company that will reportedly not do that is Disney. [Update: Sure enough, as of March 17, Black Widow's release has been delayed.]

Deadline reports that Disney has informed North American movie theatre chains that they are "staying the course" as it relates to the company's release slate. This means that the MCU movie Black Widow remains on track to release on May 1.

The report states that there was a rumor that suggested Disney was thinking about delaying Black Widow until November 6, which is when another MCU movie, Eternals, was scheduled to release, which would push Eternals out to 2021. However, Deadline's report indicates that is not the case.

Another Disney movie, Mulan, remains on-schedule for release on March 27 in North America. Pixar, which is owned by Disney, is also going forward with the release of Onward this weekend.

The Deadline report also mentions that Universal is sticking with its plans as well, and is still tracking to release the next Fast & Furious movie, F9, on May 22.

Thousands of theatres in China are currently closed, and this is expected to have a massive impact on the global film business. Theatres in South Korea have also been impacted. Both of those markets have proven to be extremely lucrative for Marvel movies. Another female-led Marvel movie, Captain Marvel, made $154 million from China and $43 million from South Korea.

The Deadline report mentions that Warner Bros. is not planning any delays, either. The new Scooby-Doo! movie, Scoob!, is still slated for May 15, while Wonder Woman 1984 is expected to go ahead as scheduled on June 5. Additionally, Paramount's SpongeBob: Sponge on the Run remains scheduled to premiere on May 22.

All of this is subject to change depending on how the novel coronavirus develops, the report said. Additionally, all of this information is related to the North American release dates. Disney and other film studios might make different choices for other markets around the world.

The novel coronavirus is also impacting the world of gaming. March's Game Developers Conference has been postponed, while the organizers of E3 have announced increase health and safety measures in the wake of Los Angeles declaring a state of emergency. E3 2020 is still planned to go ahead as scheduled in June, but like with the film business, this is a developing situation.