‘Minions: The Rise Of Gru’, ‘Sing 2’ Set New 2021 Release Dates; ‘Wicked’ Still Brewing Slot
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Last week, Illumination/Universal’s Minions: The Rise of Gru stepped off of its global release which had been set for late June in some offshore markets and for July 3 domestically. It has now been scheduled for July 2, 2021, taking the slot that belonged to Sing 2, which in turn now is headed to Christmas 2021 (December 22, domestically). Universal has thus pushed Wicked off of its holiday 2021 launch, and that film remains undated for the moment.
These are further casualties of the coronavirus pandemic as Illumination’s Mac Guff studio in Paris has been temporarily shuttered in abidance with the current lockdown in France — and as Hollywood jockeys its schedules for the foreseeable, yet unclear, future.
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Already this year, Universal has shifted the offshore release of James Bond pic No Time to Die and driven its release of F9 to Easter weekend April 2, 2021. Sony on Tuesday day shuffled a lot of titles. No studio is immune.
As for The Rise of Gru, Illumination’s Despicable Me movies in 2017 became the top-grossing animated film franchise ever worldwide. Sing, released in 2016, made $634M global.
Director Stephen Daldry’s Wicked, meanwhile, is based on the blockbuster Broadway musical that won three Tony Awards.
We knew 2020 wasn’t poised to be anywhere near as big as 2019 in terms of grosses; it was due to be a transition year. But no one ever thought it was going to be quite as harsh as this.
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