By Jake Coyle, Film Writer
NEW YORK (AP) --The Walt Disney Co. has further postponed its next mega-movies from Marvel, including "Black Widow," while also postponing Steven Spielberg's "West Side Story" a full year in the company's latest recalibration due to the pandemic.
Ten of Disney's top films shuffled release dates Wednesday, uprooting several of the company's major fall releases. The Scarlett Johansson Marvel movie "Black Widow," last set for Nov. 6, heads to May 7 of next year. Instead of opening next month, Kenneth Branagh's murder mystery "Death on the Nile" moves to Dec. 18. That was the date set for "West Side Story," but Spielberg's musical will instead debut in December 2021.
Disney didn't entirely abandon the season. The Pixar release "Soul" remains on the calendar for late November. "The Empty Man," a horror release from the former 20th Century Fox, is moving up from December to Oct. 23.
But the delays of Disney's upcoming blockbusters reinforce the growing exodus from 2020 among the blockbusters that hadn't already uprooted to next year. Following tepid ticket sales for Warner Bros.' "Tenet" in a U.S. theatrical marketplace where about 30% of cinemas remain closed, Warner Bros.' "Wonder Woman 1984" moved from October to Christmas and Universal Pictures' "Candyman" postponed to next year.
Given the interconnected nature of Marvel releases, the latest delay of "Black Widow" had a domino effect on other films. Destin Daniel Cretton's "Shang Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings," starring Simu Liu as the martial arts hero, is now slated for July 9, 2021, instead of May 7. Chloé Zhao "Eternals," with Angelina Jolie, Gemma Chan and Kumail Nanjiani, moves from February to Nov. 5, 2021.
"Marvel made the right and responsible decision," Nanjiani said on Twitter. "There's a pandemic. Nothing is more important than health and lives. I can't tell people to go to a movie theater until I feel safe going to one."
The Ben Affleck-Ana de Armas thriller "Deep Water" was also pushed from November until August next year.
Notably, Disney didn't announce any films were pivoting to its streaming platform, Disney+. Since the pandemic began, the company's "Mulan," "Hamilton" and "Artemis Fowl" have gone direct to streaming, with "Mulan" made available for a $30 premium purchase by subscribers. Disney has declined to share digital grosses for "Mulan," though the live-action remake has underperformed in theaters overseas.
ABC will air 6 additional “Monday Night Football” games starting this week with Bills-Jets
ABC will simulcast six more ESPN "Monday Night Football" games, including Monday's AFC East matchup between the Buffalo Bills and the New York Jets.
The addition of the six games means ABC will air 17 this season — 14 simulcasts with ESPN (including two playoff games) and three games exclusively on ABC.
The decision to simulcast more games was a joint decision between the NFL and Walt Disney Company, which owns ABC and ESPN.
The other added games are Baltimore at Tampa Bay (Oct. 21), Tampa Bay at Kansas City (Nov. 4), Houston at Dallas (Nov. 18), Baltimore at Los Angeles Chargers (Nov. 25) and New Orleans at Green Bay (Dec. 23).
The only two Mondays the rest of the regular season where ABC will not have a game are Nov. 11 and Dec. 2.
ABC had games all 18 weeks last season due to an agreement with the NFL since there was no new original fall programming due to the Hollywood writers and actors strikes. With more games on network television, "Monday Night Football" averaged 17.36 million viewers across ESPN, ESPN2 and ABC, a 29% increase over 2022.
It was the best audience numbers for the league's seminal prime-time package since 2000. The Super Bowl 57 rematch between Philadelphia and Kansas City averaged 29.03 million.
Coming into the season, ABC had eight scheduled simulcasts, including two Saturday Week 18 games and two playoff games, and three exclusive MNF games when there were doubleheaders.
It also continues Disney's move toward putting more sports programming back on ABC. Super Bowl 61 from Los Angeles in 2027 will be on the network and the College Football Playoff championship game will also move to ABC the same year.
More games on ABC will also boost the ratings. Kansas City's 26-13 victory... Read More