'Dune' Release Pushed To October 2021

The bad news for movie theaters in 2020 continues as DuneDenis Villeneueve's star-studded sci-fi epic, vacates its December 2020 release date and moves to October of next year. Dune joins an ever-growing number of big movies that have been pushed into next year due to the ongoing coronavirus crisis. For now, Warner Bros. will hang their 2020 winter box office hopes on Wonder Woman 1984, which is still set to open on December 25. But, as we all know by now, that could change.

Collider has the scoop on the new Dune release date: October 1, 2021. The release date change comes on the heels of the announcement that MGM pushed No Time to Die into April 2021, which seemed to set off a chain reaction that caused theater owner Cineworld to announce it would be closing its Regal Cinemas locations in America for the foreseeable future. It's worth noting, however, that Fandango Managing Editor Erik Davis has said that Warner Bros. hasn't confirmed the Dune move yet.Dune's potential move to 2021 is just the latest blow to the struggling movie theater industry, and it begs the question: are any big 2020 movies going to actually open on time at this point? Wonder Woman 1984, another big Warner Bros. property, is currently set for December 25, but with Dune moving it seems like a Wonder Woman 1984 delay is all but guaranteed.

As far as big 2020 movies go, Disney is still hoping to release the Pixar movie Soul into theaters in November, and the Ryan Reynolds comedy Free Guy is holding onto its December 11 date after moving out of July. Will they move next? It certainly seems likely. Then there's the future to consider. October 1, 2021 is also supposed to be the release date for The Batman. It seems highly unlikely that Warner Bros. is going to open two major movies on the same date like that, so you can probably expect The Batman to announce a new release date soon.

Dune stars Timothée Chalamet, Rebecca Ferguson, Oscar Isaac, Josh Brolin, Stellan Skarsgård, Dave Bautista, Stephen McKinley Henderson, Zendaya, David Dastmalchian, Chang Chen, Sharon Duncan-Brewster, Charlotte Rampling, Jason Momoa, and Javier Bardem, and is described as a "mythic and emotionally charged hero's journey" that "tells the story of Paul Atreides, a brilliant and gifted young man born into a great destiny beyond his understanding, who must travel to the most dangerous planet in the universe to ensure the future of his family and his people. As malevolent forces explode into conflict over the planet's exclusive supply of the most precious resource in existence-a commodity capable of unlocking humanity's greatest potential-only those who can conquer their fear will survive."