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Disney (DIS) Delays Blade, Deadpool & Other Marvel Movies

Zacks Equity Research
·4-min read

Disney DIS recently announced changes and delays in the release dates of a slew of movie titles, including four from the Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU).

Marvel’s Blade, the vampire movie starring Mahershala Ali, is now set to open on Sep 6, 2024, having previously been slated for Nov 3, 2023. Marvel had to temporarily shut down the production of Blade after its director Bassam Tariq exited the project in September due to scheduling conflicts.

The untitled Deadpool threequel has been moved from Sep 6, 2024 to Nov 8, 2024. Fantastic Four has been pushed back several months to Feb 14, 2025 from Nov 8, 2024. The film, one of Marvel’s most anticipated, is yet to cast the four leads.

Marvel is moving the Multiverse Saga finale, Avengers: Secret Wars, from Nov 7, 2025 to May 1, 2026. Avengers: The Kang Dynasty is staying put on May 2, 2025 but fans now have to wait a full year between the two crossovers.

Other titles getting release dates from Disney include Searchlight’s Chevalier (Apr 7, 2023), 20th Century’s A Haunting in Venice (Sep 15, 2023) and Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes (May 24, 2024).

Disney also pushed back two untitled projects. One unnamed Marvel movie slated to release on Feb 14, 2025 will now release on Nov 7, 2025, and another unnamed movie that was set for May 1, 2026 is no longer on the schedule.

During a star-studded presentation at San Diego Comic-Con earlier this year, Marvel boss Kevin Feige first laid the groundwork for the transition from Phase 4 to Phase 5 and even Phase 6 of the MCU. Phase 4 ends with Black Panther: Wakanda Forever, now a month away from hitting screens on Nov 11.

Phase 6 is where the reboot of the Fantastic Four surfaces, along with the twin Avengers movies, Avengers: The Kang Dynasty and Avengers: Secret Wars. Both were originally touted to go six months apart in May and December 2025.

A similar postponement was made for the film Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness due to the pandemic and led to Thor: Love and Thunder and Black Panther: Wakanda Forever being pushed back as well.

The Walt Disney Company Price and Consensus

The Walt Disney Company Price and Consensus
The Walt Disney Company Price and Consensus

The Walt Disney Company price-consensus-chart | The Walt Disney Company Quote

Disney+: Key Growth Driver

Disney has been working on providing quality content on all its platforms, considering changing consumer preferences and stakeholders’ expectations of the brand. It has been focused on providing creative and inclusive content across all genres that audiences of all ages can enjoy.

Disney is benefiting from the growing popularity of Disney+ due to its strong content portfolio and a much cheaper bundle offering compared with its peers.

Disney is now set to launch a new ad-supported offering for the Disney+ streaming service starting Dec 8, 2022. The new ad-supported Disney+ Basic subscription will cost $7.99 a month, which is the current pricing for Disney+ without ads. Disney noted that the ad-free subscription plan will be called Disney+ Premium and will cost $10.99 a month.

In June, Disney announced that it would begin the exclusive streaming of Marvel Studios’ Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness exclusively on Disney+, starting Jun 22.

Disney has a Zacks Rank #4 (Sell) currently and is witnessing stiff competition in the streaming space from the likes of Netflix NFLX, Amazon Prime Video, Apple’s AAPL Apple TV+, HBO Max, Comcast’s CMCSA Peacock, Paramount+ and TikTok.

Disney’s closest peer Netflix is also set to introduce a lower-priced ad-supported subscription plan apart from its existing ad-free basic, standard and premium plans. Disney, at the end of third-quarter fiscal 2022, had 221.1 million (including Disney+, ESPN+ and Hulu) subscribers, more than Netflix’s user base of 220.7 million, which it reported at the end of June.

Apple’s streaming service, Apple TV+, continues to gain recognition with its critically acclaimed and popular shows like Ted Lasso.

Comcast’s Peacock also offers a free-to-watch tier with ad support that has about 40,000 hours of content. Peacock is well poised to grow, owing to its vast library of IPs and new productions. Moreover, original content from the likes of WWE and the NFL is expected to aid subscriber growth for Peacock’s premium service.

Disney is expected to benefit from the increase in ad-free subscription pricing as rising production and programming costs for Disney+ and higher sports programming costs at ESPN+ resulted in operating losses in the recently reported fiscal third quarter.

You can see the complete list of today’s Zacks #1 Rank (Strong Buy) stocks here.


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