Wonder Woman 1984 movie may get another big release change

Wonder Woman 1984, the movie that has experienced several theatrical premiere delays this year due to the pandemic, is currently scheduled to finally hit theaters on Christmas. That plan may fall through, though, according to reports from insiders who claim that a couple of other options are also being considered.

Warners Bros. may decide to skip the Christmas release date and bump Wonder Woman 1984 to next summer, according to a new report from Variety. Alternatively, the sources behind the report claim, Warner Bros. may go ahead with the December premiere, but then make the movie available on digital right after the holidays.

The pandemic has caused widespread disruption across the movie industry, forcing studios to change the way they make their content available to the public. Of issue are movie theater closures in big release cities, as well as general reluctance among the population to risk a trip to the cinema.

Many studios have made the decision to release their movies in theaters in a limited fashion, mostly in Western Europe before it resumed lockdowns, pairing it with an early digital release that consumers could rent or purchase from the safety of their own homes.

Wonder Woman 1984 is expected to be a hit for Warner Bros and it is one of the movies that has thus far resisted a digital release. Premiering the movie in theaters this winter may backfire for the studio, however, as multiple states consider more severe lockdowns and case numbers continue to rise weekly.

The new report claims that if Warner Bros does proceed with the December theatrical release, that it may release the movie only two weeks later on HBO Max. The decision may ultimately give WarnerMedia the chance to boost its HBO Max subscriber numbers. However, a summer 2021 release may work well if a vaccine becomes widely available early next year and consumers flock to movie theaters.