(Bloomberg) — One of the biggest movies slated for 2022 — “Mission: Impossible 7” starring Tom Cruise — is being pushed into next year in the latest blow to struggling cinemas.
The film, which had already been postponed before, will shift from September to July 2023, according to a statement from ViacomCBS Inc.’s Paramount Pictures. Although filming wrapped last year, editing and other post-production chores have been delayed by the surge of the omicron variant.
The next picture in the series, “Mission: Impossible 8,” is also moving, from July 2023 to June 2024.
Cinema owners were counting on this to be a comeback year, anchored by big-budget installments of franchises like “The Batman” and “Mission: Impossible.” But less than a month into 2022, expectations are already being dialed back.
Read more: Tom Cruise, ‘Avatar 2’ showcase Hollywood bet on theaters
Walt Disney Co. announced earlier this month that the Pixar animated film “Turning Red” wouldn’t appear in theaters, as the company had planned, and will go directly to its Disney+ streaming service in markets where that product is available. Many new pictures have struggled to find an audience in theaters during the pandemic.
The big-action-film genre — the one that encompasses “Mission: Impossible” — is the lone category that has performed fairly well. Sony Group’s “Spider-Man: No Way Home” debuted last month amid the omicron surge and is already the fourth-highest-grossing movie of all time, according to Box Office Mojo.
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