Disney postpones the release of major films by years because of budget cuts
Disney has announced a major shakeup in the release schedule for some of its biggest movie franchises – pushing back the next installments of Avatar and Star Wars.
The entertainment company delayed the release of Avatar 3 by a year from December 2024 to December 2025 on Tuesday, while making other adjustments to the release schedules for Marvel and Star Wars movies.
For further planned episodes of Avatar, the timeline stretched even further, with Avatar 4 now slated to hit theaters in December 2029 and Avatar 5 slated for December 2031.
The next Star Wars movie was pushed from December 2025 to May 2026, and Disney added another movie to the franchise for December 2026. The studio hasn’t revealed any details about the self-titled production.
Disney gave no reason for the delays, though the ongoing Hollywood writers’ strike may have disrupted some projects, and the company is also trying to boost profits through hefty cost-cutting efforts.
Disney delayed the release of Avatar 3 a year to December 2025 on Tuesday. Avatar 4 is now scheduled to hit theaters in December 2029; Avatar 5 is expected to release in December 2031
The next Star Wars movie was pushed from December 2025 to May 2026, and Disney added another movie to the franchise for December 2026. The studio has not revealed any details about the self-titled production
Disney CEO Bob Iger has set a goal of reducing annual costs by $5.5 billion, including a $3 billion reduction in spending on non-sports content.
The Marvel calendar was also remade on Tuesday as the Disney-owned studio continues to reshape its plans for the next phases of the sprawling superhero saga.
Notably, Avengers: Kang Dynasty will be delayed for a year, from May 2025 to May 2026.
That film, a pivotal release for Marvel, stars Jonathan Majors, the actor accused of domestic violence in March. Majors’ lawyer has denied the allegations and says he is innocent.
Majors was first introduced as the new supervillain Kang in the streaming series Loki, and also appeared in the recent movie Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania.
Avengers: Secret Wars was also delayed by a year, from May 2026 to May 2027.
Other shifts in Marvel releases include some movies being pushed back a few months.
Captain America: Brave New World opens in July 2024 instead of May 2024, followed by Thunderbolts in December 2024, Blade in February 2025 and Fantastic Four in May 2025.
One Marvel movie, a Deadpool sequel starring Ryan Reynolds, will be released sooner than expected. It will hit theaters in May 2024, instead of November 2024.
Disney CEO Bob Iger aims to reduce annual costs by $5.5 billion, including a $3 billion reduction in spending on non-sports content
Avengers: Kang Dynasty is delayed for a year, until May 2026. Star Johnathan Majors, who plays the supervillain Kang, was recently charged with domestic violence
Deadpool 3, starring Ryan Reynolds, saw its release date pushed back several months, to May 2024. The movie will merge Deadpool into the Marvel Cinematic Universe
Following Disney’s acquisition of 20th Century, Deadpool’s film rights, as well as those of the X-Men and the Fantastic Four, were returned to Marvel Studios.
The next untitled Deadpool movie will merge the character into the Marvel Cinematic Universe.
Also from Disney’s 20th Century, another Alien movie is now on the calendar, dated for August next year.
The changes to Avatar’s release schedule would mean that the film series will have stretched across the first four decades of the century by chapter five.
Director James Cameron, who launched Avatar in 2009, has said he is not allowed to direct films 4 and 5.
By December 2031, the target date for Avatar 5, the now 68-year-old Cameron would be 77.
Avatar and its sequel, Avatar: The Way of Water, have collectively earned more than $5.2 billion at the box office.
Avatar producer Jon Landau wrote on Twitter on Tuesday that the filmmakers needed more time to complete the third, fourth and fifth parts in the science fiction series based around the fictional moon Pandora.
“Each Avatar movie is an exciting yet epic endeavor that takes time to reach the level of quality that we as filmmakers strive for and audiences have come to expect,” Landau wrote.
“The team is hard at work and can’t wait to bring audiences back to Pandora in December 2025.”
In an unusual move, Avatar: The Way of Water was released on June 7 for simultaneous streaming on Disney+ and rival platform Max
In an unusual move, Avatar: The Way of Water was released on June 7 for simultaneous streaming on Disney+ and rival platform Max.
The joint streaming release is the product of a deal that saw Warner Bros.-owned Max. Discovery, can share streaming windows with Disney+ and Hulu for half of the studio’s titles through the 2022 release year.
According to data from Samba TV shared with DailyMail.com, 2.6 million US households watched Avatar: The Way of Water on Disney+ and Max during the first five days of its streaming release.
“The film’s unique dual release, simultaneous on two of the leading streaming platforms, as well as its appeal to diverse audiences, including Black and Hispanic households, likely contributed to the initial surge in viewership,” said Cole Strain, VP of Measurement Products at Samba TV.
Black and Hispanic households are both over-indexed by viewership of Avatar: The Way of Water by 10 percent and 9 percent, respectively, compared to the national average, according to the audience measurement company.