It’s apparently the time of year when studios do the release date shuffle: this weekend saw Fox move their calendar around and reveal things like that they’re putting out three “X-Men” movies next year, and today has seen Disney take time out of just rolling around in giant piles of money to address their current (non-Marvel slate).
The big headline news is that “Indiana Jones 5,” previously set for July 2019, has been pushed back a year, and will now open on July 10th, 2020. It’s likely to help make room for Steven Spielberg’s schedule, after he pushed back “The Kidnapping Of Edgardo Mortara” to make room for his Meryl Streep/Tom Hanks Pentagon Papers movie, but it’s also worth noting that Harrison Ford will be 78 years old on July 10th, 2020, and that’s assuming he doesn’t try to land his plane on another plane again. Maybe they just wanted another year to help people forget about “Kingdom Of The Crystal Skull?”
In news that isn’t really news, “Star Wars Episode IX” has been officially dated for May 24th, 2019 just three weeks after the arrival of “Avengers 4,” making it a pretty big one at the box office. It’s the second “Star Wars” film to shift off the Christmas release schedule after 2018’s “Han Solo” movie, which will also open in May.
Also of note: “Ralph Breaks The Internet: Wreck-It Ralph 2” has been delayed from next March to November 2018, while Ava DuVernay’s “A Wrinkle In Time” takes its old date on March 9th next year. Fairy-tale animation “Gigantic” has been delayed two years to November 25th, 2020, while Jon Favreau’s “The Lion King” will open on July 19th, 2019, and “Frozen 2” arrives November 27th, 2019.
There’s a few more shifts, but they’re mostly for untitled Marvel, Disney or Pixar movies, including an August 7th, 2020 date that sounds a lot like it’ll be for “Guardians Of The Galaxy Vol. 3.”