Benzinga | Jan 22, 2021 03:00AM EST

Sony, MGM Studios Delay Big Ticket Movie Releases

Surging COVID-19 cases in the U.S. have forced MGM Studios and Sony Corp's (NYSE:SNE) Sony Pictures to push back big-ticket movies by few months, according to The Hollywood Reporter.

What Happened: In yet another blow to the movie theaters, MGM and Sony announced a delay in major movie titles. James Bond movie "No Time to Die" will be delayed until Oct. 8, "Peter Rabbit 2: The Runaway" is pushed to June 11, "Cinderella" postponed to July 16, "Ghostbusters: Afterlife" moved to Nov. 11, and "Uncharted" has been postponed until February next year.

"Given the uncertainty of the marketplace, a change of date is certainly better than a change of venue, so to speak from big screen to small screen," Paul Dergarabedian, senior media analyst at Comscore, told CNBC.

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Why It Matters: "No Time to Die" has a budget of roughly $250 million, and adding marketing costs, MGM needs to generate at least $400 million. Dergarabedian said that such big-ticket movies have a high revenue-generating potential for the movie theater and worth the wait.

Movie theaters like AMC Entertainment Holdings Inc (NYSE: AMC) are still struggling to stay afloat as extended lockdown has kept moviegoers out of the cinema halls. This has led to many movie studios opting for the simultaneous movie release on OTT platforms.

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