Venom: Let There Be Carnage may not officially be moving yet, but Paramount has decided that the tepid box office returns of 2021 are just not worth it. The studio has announced that a plethora of its biggest films are shifting to 2022, causing a cascade of delays for the studio, including two Tom Cruise films. Top Gun: Maverick, Mission: Impossible 7, and Jackass Forever, all three major franchise tentpoles for the studio, have been delayed into 2022.
Top Gun: Maverick is delaying half a year as it moves from November 19 to May 27, 2022. That’s where Mission: Impossible 7 was sitting, so the studio has bumped that four months to September 30, 2022. Finally, seemingly unconnected to the other films, it has moved Jackass Forever to February 4, 2022, from October 22. These aren’t any of these films’ first delays, but the size of them shows that the studio does not believe that audiences will be back anytime soon and may be setting Jackass up as its water tester before it launches with the two bigger franchises later in the year.
Not all studios are running scared, though. With November 19 opened, Sony moved Ghostbusters: Afterlife there, giving the film a week delay but affirming that they’ll be releasing it this year. Meanwhile, the final trailer for No Time to Die, the next Bond film, recently landed, further cementing that that film will finally release. And WB seems to be staying the course as well, with Dune still scheduled for day-and-date release in theaters and on HBO Max. Disney might be using Shang-Chi and the Legends of the Ten Rings to truly test the box office waters before making any decisions on delays, but as of now it’s holding put too.
Don’t hold your breath for any of Paramount’s films to come to streaming any time soon, despite Paramount+ existing. The studio has kept to theatrical releases, for the most part, throughout the pandemic and doesn’t look to be moving away from them. And with this delay, Top Gun: Maverick, Mission: Impossible 7, and Jackass Forever are now all even further away.
