Sony’s Escape Room 2 is jumping its release date from Aug. 14 to Wednesday Dec. 30 this year. Adam Robitel, who directed the first $9M production, returns to helm here. The first movie last year grossed $57M stateside, and $155.7M WW with 22% of that latter number coming from China. Originally, Escape Room 2 was dated on April 17 of this year.

Escape Room 2 moves away from a crowded late summer weekend against Disney’s The One and Only Ivan, Universal’s Bob Odenkirk action thriller Nobody and Atom Monster/Starlight Culture/New Line’s James Wan horror feature Malignant (which by the way, Sony, is very smart). Nothing is opening wide on the Wednesday before Jan 1, 2021, but Escape Room 2 comes in the wake of such holiday programmed pics as Disney/20th Century Studios’ The Last Duel, Paramount/Skydance’s The Tomorrow War, Universal’s News of the World, DreamWorks Animation’s The Croods 2, and Warner Bros.’ Tom & Jerry movie.

While I understand the release date change has nothing to do with the coronavirus, it’s a better bet to go much later with this movie than sooner in China. Even though the PRC film board doesn’t decide until much later which Hollywood pics get into the country, no doubt once the market opens back up, there’s apt to be a flood of event pics, both delayed and current.

Holland Roden (Teen Wolf, Channel Zero: Butcher’s Block), Indya Moore (Pose, Queen & Slim), Thomas Cocquerel (Table 19, The 100), Carlito Olivero (East Los High, Step Up: High Water), and Isabelle Fuhrman are set to star opposite returnees Taylor Russell and Logan Miller.

There’s typically an appetite for genre around the New Year’s corridor, Escape Room having opened on Jan. 4 last year to solid $18.2M in the No. 2 spot.