Another day, another movie relinquishes its planned release date. Universal and Illumination have decided to delay the release of Minions: The Rise of Gru amid the coronavirus pandemic. The animated film was to open on July 3 and what makes this one interesting is that with that date, this makes it a film this far into the summer to decide to pull itself from the schedule.
Much like the other delays, no new date has been set for the Minions sequel because all of these studios have to grapple with what new date could work based on when they feel this all could be over and when they feel they could have a proper return on investment. With most theaters closing their doors indefinitely, it makes it hard for the studios to have hope this will be over anytime soon. AMC is the only theater to give a timeframe of 6-12 weeks but when a film from July exits the schedule, it gives me the impression some studios think these closures will last through the summer.
There was also some last-minute work to be done on the film before its release but Illumination Animation had to close its studios in France because of the pandemic so the film simply wouldn’t be 100% completed in time because of this. Founder and CEO of Illumination, Chris Meledandri had this to say about the delay:
In response to the severity of the situation in France, we are temporarily closing our Illumination Mac Guff studio in Paris. With this decision we are abiding by the French Government’s guidelines and doing everything possible to slow the spread of the virus as we care for our artists and their families. This means we will be unable to finish Missions: The Rise of Gru in time for our planned global releases in late June and early July. While we all grapple with the enormity of this crisis, we must put the safety and protection of our employees above all. We look forward to finding a new release date for the return of Gru and the Minions.”
Are we about to abandon summer movie season this year? Sadly looking like that’s the case.
