Ghosts might not worry the Ghostbusters, but the ongoing Coronavirus pandemic has Sony worried about its box office returns. The studio has announced that it’s shifting a number of its upcoming films to later dates, including the upcoming Ghostbusters: Afterlife and Morbius, which were slated to hit theaters this summer. The films will now debut in March 2021.
The Ghostbusters sequel is Sony’s latest attempt to reboot the 1980s franchise. Unlike Paul Feig’s 2016 all-female reboot, Jason Reitman’s film is a direct sequel to 1989’s Ghostbusters 2. Feig’s film was divisive: splitting audiences and ultimately disappointing at the box office.
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Sony obviously doesn’t want a repeat of that, and as the ongoing COVID-19 outbreak has prompted theaters around the world to close, studios have worked to push their upcoming blockbusters back to dates when audiences will feel comfortable enough to go to theaters.
Already, studios have pushed big-budget films like Wonder Woman 1984 and Black Widow out of their original release windows. In other instances, studios have opted to simply cut short their theatrical releases, and gone straight to releasing the films to Video on Demand or streaming services.
Ghostbusters: Afterlife is the latest film to be delayed. It’ll now hit theaters on March 5th, 2021. Other films include Sony and Marvel’s Spider-man-adjacent Morbius (slated for July 30th, 2020, not being released on March 19th, 2021), its adaptation of Uncharted (slated for March 5th 2021, now hitting on October 8th, 2021), and an untitled Sony/Marvel film that was to be released on October 8th, 2021. Other films being shifted include the Tom Hanks WWII film Greyhound, Fatherhood, and Peter Rabbit 2: The Runaway.
