Why Is Blake Lively's Next Movie 'The Rhythm Section' Delayed Once Again?

You will need to wait a further four months for the spy thriller movie starring Blake Lively. But why is the movie delayed again?

After a third postponement, Blake Lively starrer ‘The Rhythm Section’ is now scheduled to hit theatres on 31 January 2020. The spy thriller was set for a February 2019 release date, but then the movie was moved to a pre-Thanksgiving period of 22 November of 2019 which was another release date the film abandoned.

Blake Lively is starring in the movie alongside Jude Law and Sterling K. Brown with Barbara Broccoli producing. The movie went on the floor with the production date of 16 August 2017, and principal photography started in December of 2017 with the crew heading to Dublin for filming.

Source: IMDb

After a few weeks in principle photography, the movie was delayed due to complications from the starring actor and then the production was halted, which resulted in the film postponing their release date. The director of the movie Reed Morano and the producers are not giving any explanations for the delay and the jumping release date.

Why Was The Movie Moved From The February 2019 Date?

Well, the problem with the abandonment of the first release date of February 2019 was because of a complication in the production. Blake Lively is playing an action role and acting as an assassin, which meant she was asked to do some action scenes. During one of the fight, choreography and filming Blake Lively hurt her hand, which resulted in her getting a surgery. Blake was expected to come back to filming when something went wrong with her medical procedure, and she needed to get the surgery again.

This delayed the principal photography of the movie, and she only reported for duty in June of 2018. The film resumed production, and the movie missed its deadline to meet the February release date which caused the producers to move the film further in the year.

Why Was The 22 November Release Date Abandoned?

After Blake got back to filming and the principal photography was done, the director of the movie handed the movie over to the editors, and the advertisement phase of the movie was beginning. Then Blake got pregnant, and she was not able to attend the advertisement for the film with the same voracity it was needed. The producers did the sensible thing and moved the movie again so they can accommodate Blake’s delivery and also avoid competition.

November is peak movie season, gone are the days when November and December were Oscar season where only Oscar baits were released in the theatres. Nowadays every month is a blockbuster month, which means November was also the same case. ‘The Rhythm Section’ was facing competition with the release date of Frozen 2 and the Tom Hanks starrer 'A Beautiful Day in the Neighborhood'.

Source: Variety

Who in their right mind would want to go up against the Disney giant 'Frozen' at the box office and it is not a great idea to try and get in a phone booth fight with an Oscar-bait and a Tom Hanks starring biopic movie which looks set for a massive haul of awards during the award season.

The Production Company and Paramount sunk $50 million into the movie and it is not particularly a good idea to pit your film against a family event film and an adult-skewing movie. Those two movies cover almost all the demography of The Rhythm Section, so it seems the producers did the right thing of jumping out of there and getting to a safer location, it seems the move was a smart decision.

Will They Keep The 31 January 2020 Release Date?

The movie cannot jump around forever; this is not something like the 'Chaos Walking' situation where the film just can’t be released. The Rhythm Section will come out, and 31 January seems to be a set-date for Paramount. The movie is not facing a severe competition during the January time with direct competition coming from 'Gretel and Hansel', which doesn’t seem like much.

The 31 January date is also leading into the Super Bowl weekend which is not known to be friendly territory to release movies, but it probably can work as a counter-programming for guys and girls who are not fond of football.

Source: PROFILE Miami

January release and the jumping around of release dates doesn’t inspire a whole lot of confidence, but like her husband proved February could be an excellent month for blockbuster movies, maybe she will follow suit and turn January into a blockbuster month.

Blake was on a roll with back to back hits like 'The Age of Adaline', 'Café Society', and 'The Shallows' but it was halted by box office bomb 'All I See Is You'. She returned to form with 'A Simple Favor', and she is probably hoping The Rhythm Section catches on because the movie will be a massive boost for her income and her net worth.

Blake is currently enjoying, well if anyone can enjoy being pregnant, her third pregnancy and living with her husband, Ryan Reynolds.