WB must commit to Wonder Woman 1984 release soon, theater execs say

Wonder Woman 1984 - Fandango Preview - Featured - 01

One of the biggest questions for DC fans right now is if Wonder Woman 1984 will release on Dec. 25. According to one report, Warner Bros. is already discussing the possibility of moving it.

Last week, Warner Bros. Chair and CEO Ann Sarnoff said “We’ve got a little bit of time to figure that out” when it came to Wonder Woman 1984, but it seems that is changing by the minute.

Brett Lang, an Executive Editor at Variety, relayed on Monday that AMC CEO Adam Aron said that Warner Bros. is committed to releasing Wonder Woman 1984 on Christmas Day, but that no one would be certain of that until Dec. 19 or Dec. 20.

This report was followed up later in the day by an article from Deadline saying that time is actually running out to make the decision. According to multiple industry sources, if Warner Bros. wants to avoid lost advertising and marketing funds, it has to make the move before Thanksgiving. Generally, film marketing ramps up six weeks prior to release, and that would fall directly in line with the holiday.

This was an issue that hit Christopher Nolan’s Tenet. As the film kept doing small two-week date changes, Warner Bros. had to keep throwing even more money into marketing, continually inflating the costs of the project. If the studio wants to avoid that issue with Wonder Woman 1984, then it needs to commit to the date change sooner rather than later.

Should Warner Bros. opt to move the film, 2021 is already packed to the rafters with other projects that have moved. Finding a home for Wonder Woman 1984 may prove difficult, but the prevailing theory is that it will land on the first weekend of June. That is the same weekend Wonder Woman opened to $103.2 million domestically.

With COVID cases spiking throughout the Northern hemisphere, it seems like the announcement of a release date change is a matter of “when” and not “if.”

Wonder Woman 1984 is currently scheduled to hit theaters on Dec. 25.