2ND UPDATE, 11:47 AM: Solstice Studios is looking to release Unhinged in August now with AMC reopening next month, but they’re not scheduling a definite date yet as I understand. They want to wait and see where Warner Bros.’ Tenet lands and if Disney moves Mulan off Aug. 21 (some sources believe the latter won’t happen). It would not be shocking if Tenet begins its theatrical rollout, at least stateside, in the post Labor Day corridor of Sept. 11, where Warners has had great success with the It movies and The Nun.
Solstice is committing to theatrical, which is the philosophy of the new studio. There won’t be any select theaters-PVOD strategy with this Russell Crowe road rage movie. Big screen only. The studio always had a plan to play Unhinged without New York and Los Angeles initially in the mix, and unfortunately, we’re going to have to wait some time for those cities to reopen their multiplexes.
PREVIOUS UPDATE, JUNE 26 : As expected with Tenet‘s big move to Aug. 12, and Mulan‘s to Aug. 21, Solstice Studios’ first theatrical release Unhinged will now open July 31. If Sony/Tri-Star’s Broken Hearts Gallery moves to Aug. 7, Unhinged will then be the first fresh wide release for exhibition after being shutdown since mid-March. Again, it’s not expected for AMC and Regal to be open in mid-July with COVID-19 cases spiking and New York and LA markets not even open yet. We’re waiting on official word from AMC and Regal. We hear Cinemark is proceeding with opening 75 theaters next weekend.
Unhinged initially was expected to open over the Independence Day stretch next weekend, but then moved to July 10 after Tenet jumped from July 17 to July 31.
There’s also Lionsgate’s Antebellum on Aug. 21, sharing space with Mulan. Gotta figure that title moves.
So far the immediate ‘summer’ calendar for wide releases is looking like this below. Who says August has to be a bad month at the box office?
July 17
Broken Hearts Gallery (Sony)
July 24
nothing
July 31
Unhinged (Solstice)
Aug. 7
The Empty Man (20th Studios/Disney)
Aug. 12
Tenet (WB)
Aug. 14
Greenland (STX)
Aug. 21
Mulan (Dis)
Antebellum (Lionsgate)
Let Him Go (Focus)
Aug. 28
Bill & Ted Face the Music (UAR)
The New Mutants (Dis)
Sept. 4
A Quiet Place II (Paramount)
Monster Hunter (Sony)
PREVIOUSLY, JUNE 12: Solstice Studios had said that it wasn’t going to move Unhinged if Tenet moved, but the company had second thoughts and now is jumping the Russell Crowe road-rage movie from July 1 to July 10.
That means no movie over the Fourth of July weekend.
I’ve heard that AMC is planning an early-July opening, post-Independence Day, and it could be pegged to Unhinged. Hopefully the other circuits don’t push their reopening dates given the new delay in the summer release calendar spurred by Tenet going from July 17 to July 31still . Director Christopher Nolan will have his third-weekend-in-July date, though: Warner Bros. will have a 10th anniversary re-issue of Inception on that weekend.
Unhinged takes an ordinary, everyday incident to its most terrifying conclusion in telling the story of a mother who leans on her horn at the wrong time, to the wrong guy. Road rage doesn’t begin to describe what he’s about to do to her and everyone she knows. That role is played by Crowe, the Oscar winner who can dial up the intensity like few actors can. Derrick Borte directed the Carl Ellsworth script, and Caren Pistorius, Gabriel Bateman, Jimmi Simpson and Austin P. McKenzie also star.