
You all need something to watch in the next few weeks, right? Cathy Yan’s got you covered.
Fandango has announced that Warner Bros. will release its excellent Harley Quinn team-up movie (digitally) significantly earlier than planned to March 24, thanks to increased demand for home-viewings in the wake of social distancing measures suggested to combat the advancement of covid-19, the disease spread by the novel coronavirus. The move comes after the film’s director, Cathy Yan, discussed on Twitter recently that she would be open to the film getting an early release.
It’s just the latest news as distributors and studios begin to reckon with the immediate impact the spread of covid-19 is having on the entertainment industry, not just from a production standpoint—with many movies and TV shows suspending production—but a distribution one, too. Disney released Frozen II on demand through Disney+ three months earlier than planned, and pulled forward the digital release of The Rise of Skywalker in the U.S. this past weekend, while Universal made the unprecedented move of suddenly releasing current first run movies such as The Invisible Man and the upcoming Trolls: World Tour as $20 digital releases as of yesterday.
There’s no word on whether Birds of Prey’s early digital release will apply just in the U.S. or internationally (The Rise of Skywalker’s digital distribution outside of the U.S., for example, is still set to go ahead in April in Europe). But if you want a good time among many planned distractions in the coming weeks, Birds of Prey is a decent one, depending on your love of f-bombs and egg sandwiches.
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