Sony has officially delayed the release date for Adam Robitel‘s Escape Room 2 until next year. Serving as a sequel to Robitel‘s 2019 eponymous psychological-horror film, Taylor Russell, Logan Miller, Deborah Ann Woll, Tyler Labine, Jay Ellis, Nik Dodani, and Yorick van Wageningen in the lead roles, Escape Room 2 was initially scheduled to release on April 17, 2020. But in wake of the lethal Covid-19 pandemic, the movie was rescheduled several times, with its most recent release date being January 1, 2021. Now again, Sony has moved the film off its schedule, leaving fans confused.
Sony has pushed the release date of Escape Room 2 to a TBD weekend in 2021. The move follows the reprogramming of Paul W. S. Anderson‘s Milla Jovovich starrer Monster Hunter, which the distributor has moved up from its April 23, 2021 release date back into this year. Sony has set a December 30, 2020 release date for Monster Hunter, which is very close to Escape Room 2‘s January 1 premiere date. Therefore, in order to prevent its two big-ticket movies from competing at the box office, Sony has delayed Escape Room 2 to a later date.
With several cinemas across the US facing closures due to the Covid-19 pandemic, the rescheduling was not unexpected. Escape Room 2‘s main market lies within the US, whereas, video game adaptations like Monster Hunter fare better in Asian markets like Japan and China. Had Escape Room 2 opened up in the US this year, it would have inevitably suffered a massive blow. And although Monster Hunter won’t gain its anticipated traction in the US either, it will ideally at least be able to make profits in foreign markets where the cinemas are already open.
Escape Room 2 is the sequel to the $155 million box office hit psychological thriller that terrified audiences around the world.