Dune postponed to 2021, The Batman to 2022, AMC doubles down on their theaters staying open

Regal closes all US theaters Thursday 10/8, AMC trying to stay open with few new movies

W.A.S.P has this song on their debut album called “The Torture Never Stops” – a fitting ballad for the movie business in 2020.

Those looking forward to seeing Dune (me!) around Christmas in 2020 will now need to wait until Oct 1, 2021 and Warner Bros. has pushed The Batman back to 2022. Several other titles have been moved around.

Warner Bros. is delaying a slew of its upcoming films, including The Batman, which EW has confirmed is now set for a March 4, 2022 premiere. Its previous Oct. 1, 2021 date is being taken over by Denis Villeneuve’s Dune, confirming reports from earlier today.

The Batman moves to 2022 after Dune takes its premiere date | EW.com

Curiously, AMC is not closing their theaters in the United States in reaction to Regal closing all their locations as of end of business Thursday 10/8/2020. As we learned previously, the Regal Cinema closings will likely run through Christmas (see: “Facing situation where it is better to be closed than to be open,” says Cineworld/Regal CEO – Could be 1-2+ months before they reopen)

Since there are no AMC theaters open in any reasonable distance from us (Washington State near Seattle), we’re now effectively unable to see any new movies released in theaters. That includes The War With Grandpa that opens wide (eyeroll) this weekend and Honest Thief next week. Bummer, as we want to see both those movies.

No idea if those two movies will be delayed or made available on streaming or simply roll out where theaters are open. Seems like at least War With Grandpa is going as planned. We will be unable to review that here, unfortunately, unless a theater opens nearby.

Normally on Wednesdays we spotlight movies opening wide in theaters, but didn’t today and will resume that feature once theaters are open again in our area. It can be AMC, Regal, Cinemark or even independent theaters, we just want any movie theater that shows new movies open — and that’s not a reality locally at the moment. We’ll continue to wait, hopeful they will open and have new movies to show again soon.