As the beginning of the SAG-AFTRA strike this past week has intensified a wave of labour movements in Hollywood, movie studios are already starting to scramble as their marketing plans, now unable to leverage their movies’ stars, go right out the window. It’s more than just scrapped comic-con panels though: a new reports suggests studios are already looking to play a long game.
Variety reports that, due SAG-AFTRA’s strike conditions prohibiting union members from participating in promotional work for struck studios, Warner Bros. is already contemplating delaying multiple tentpole movies from their current year-end release dates. Floated in the report are Dune Part 2, currently slated for early November, as well as Aquaman and the Lost Kingdom and The Color Purple, both currently set for late December. All three movies could, potentially, see pushbacks into 2024—but Variety also notes that this is still very much up in the air. In the case of Dune Part 2, both Warner Bros. and Legendary, who co-produced the film, would need to agree to a change in release date, and Legendary has allegedly yet to be approached about such a decision.
That such a report is being floated suggests that studios are starting believe that an amicable end to the strikes—either SAG’s or the WGA strike, now well into its third month—is not coming any time soon. All three of these movies are over four months away, and it’d be a dire indicator of the AMPTP’s unwillingness to return to the negotiating table if they are inevitably delayed because they would otherwise release in an ongoing strike environment. Given the AMPTP’s response to even the most reasonable of demands from the unions however, that ultimately may prove to be the case, even when there’s a much simpler path to resolving the strikes than all this.
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