As every major movie there is flees the year 2020 like the burning, sinking, melting, apocalyptic s**tshow of a ship that it is, one brave film is actually returning to 2020. Like a child in a disaster movie running towards the crumbling building to recover his Teddy bear as everyone shouts “Billy, no!”, Sony has officially confirmed that the Monster Hunter movie will now release on Dec. 30. The news comes after the trailer for the film teased a December release date in stark contrast to the April 23, 2021 release date the film had.
The move was evidently in the works before No Time to Die delayed to that same month, so it isn’t a direct reaction to that, but that competition probably helped make the decision easier. Sony is eyeing a cinematic landscape that features absolutely no big action releases and thinking that Monster Hunter can fill that gap. However, Wonder Woman 1984 is still scheduled to land just a few days before on Christmas Day, so it’s not quite the completely open schedule that Sony would like to find. The studio must be betting on theaters being somewhat open by then despite the fact that Regal has shut down its screens across the U.S. and parent company Cineworld has closed theaters in the U.K. and Europe.
This isn’t the film’s first move as it was originally meant to land this past September but was pushed ahead when it was clear theaters wouldn’t be open enough to support it. Hollywood and theaters have been struggling to find the right time to start returning films to theaters after Tenet failed to garner a U.S. audience.
Directed by W.S. Anderson and starring Milla Jovovich and Tony Jaa, Monster Hunter is an adaptation of the Capcom video game series of the same name. It’s part of Capcom’s aggressive plans to turn its gaming franchises into media brands with films and television adaptations. It also recently announced a new Resident Evil film along with two Netflix series. There’s also the lackluster Dragon’s Dogma anime.
