A new movie starring Zendaya and the latest indie from A24 are among the first titles that audiences will see impacted by the ongoing actors' strike, as release dates for Challengers and Problemista have been pushed from their respective summer and early fall dates.
Up first is Problemista, the feature debut from Julio Torres (Los Espookys) that he was going to star in alongside Tilda Swinton. The movie was set to have its limited release on August 4, but Deadline has reported that A24 has hit pause on those plans and will release the movie at an undetermined later date.
Deadline also shared that Challengers, the latest movie from Call Me by Your Name director Luca Guadanino and starring Zendaya, Josh O'Connor and Mike Faist, was moving from its September 15 release date and being pushed into next year, with a new release date of April 26, 2024. The movie's previously announced world premiere at the 2023 Venice Film Festival has also been canceled.
It was also announced previously that Lionsgate was moving its movie White Bird from its August 18 premiere to sometime in Q4 2023.
These moves are all happening primarily because of the actors' strike, which prevents the stars of the movies from promoting their films. The strike, which officially began on July 14, is a result of actors and studios not being able to come to an agreement on a new labor contract.
A number of movies that were in production were immediately shut down because of the strike, including Mission: Impossible — Dead Reckoning Part Two, Deadpool 3 and Gladiator 2, but at this time it is unclear if those release dates will be impacted.
This is the first confirmed 2023 movies being impacted by the strike. However, on July 20, Variety reported that Warner Bros. Pictures was considering changing the release plans of Dune Part Two, The Color Purple and Aquaman and the Lost Kingdom, but nothing has been officially announced and all those movies maintain their current release dates.
The upcoming US TV schedules have also been impacted by the Hollywood strikes. In addition to the actors' strike, writers have been on the picket lines for months as they could not reach a deal with studios either. That has led to very different looking fall TV schedules on the major networks, as popular ABC shows like The Good Doctor and Grey's Anatomy, NBC's Chicago PD and Law & Order: SVU weren't able to produce new episodes for this fall. As a result, more reality TV shows are being planned and CBS is even bringing its cable hit Yellowstone to broadcast to help fill its primetime schedule.
Is the decision to move Challengers and Problemista going to be the opening of the proverbial floodgates for more movies? We'll have to wait and see.
