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Disney has unset the wide theatrical release of Jeff Nichols’ The Bikeriders from its Dec. 1 theatrical release. Wouldn’t you know? AMC has their Renaissance: A Film by Beyoncé on that date. Even though Beyoncé won’t be as big as Taylor Swift, she’ll the queen bee at the box office on the dead post-Thanksgiving December weekend with around a $20M start.
TBD as to when the New Regency movie gets dated again, but the studio is citing the actors strike. That’s a good excuse as adult films have suffered the most from the lack of actors’ promotions, and this one has Austin Butler, Tom Hardy and Jodie Comer in it. However, what if the actors strike clears up soon enough? That still allows this movie to launch in early December for awards season, No? In addition to its Telluride world premiere, The Bikeriders already had an Academy screening in the last two weeks. Other films, such as MGM/Amazon’s Saltburn (Nov 17), are making a go on theatrical schedule sans actors promoting; Searchlight’s Poor Things (Dec 8), too as we get into the thick of Oscar season.
Disney recently had a misfire with the release of New Regency/20th Century Studios’ $80M sci-fi movie The Creator which had a tepid $14M domestic start and has only made $80M WW, $32.4M from domestic. That movie was hamstrung, unable to tap John David Washington to promote due to actors strike with only director Gareth Edwards out there. Following the lackluster launch of Creator, the news hit that Michael Schaefer, President of Motion Picture and Television of New Regency Productions, was exiting his post after seven years.
The Bikeriders is currently 88% certified fresh on Rotten Tomatoes from 26 reviews.
Said one distribution insider recently about upcoming release date changes due to the actors’ strike: “Yes, some 2024 films will move because they can’t finish post or shooting in time. But other studios will use the strike as an excuse to move films overall — because they’re just bad!”