The guy who works at the comic shop I go to has a theory that the shifting release date has more to do with the Frozen sequel than anything else. I haven’t looked into it myself yet, but that sounds plausible to me.
That would make sense. I just checked imdb and Frozen 2 is slated for November 27, 2019.
I would say there’s no way they’d compete with themselves by releasing a Marvel or Star Wars movie only three weeks later, but then again they’re already releasing Avengers 3 and Han Solo that exact same length of time from each other next May. Unless plans change, they’re doing the same thing with Avengers 4 and Episode IX a year later.
Lest we forget, the original plan was to release Episode VIII this past weekend, only three weeks after Guardians 2.
Maybe they’ve done the math and figured they’re not competing with themselves during the summer months when most people going to see those Avengers movies will do so in the first three weeks anyway but the winter months are too cold for more than one big tentpole release.
Plus, the movie is called Frozen.
I can see why they’d want it to be the last release of the year.