The global COVID-19 pandemic continues to disrupt the entertainment industry as the emerging omicron variant has led Sony Corp's movie studio to delay the January release of Marvel superhero movie "Morbius" until April 1, the studio said in a statement on Monday.

The film starring Jared Leto in the title role has been postponed several times during the pandemic. Its most recent planned release date was Jan. 28.

Alongside Leto, the ensemble includes acclaimed stars of Michael Keaton, Matt Smith, Jared Harris and Adria Arjona.

The film revolves around biochemist Michael Morbius who tries to cure himself of a rare blood disease, but when his experiment goes wrong, he inadvertently infects himself with a form of vampirism instead. Directed by Daniel Espinosa who was also behind 2017's "Life," the film is intended to be the third entry in Sony's "Spider-Man" universe. It is not exactly known at this moment what the story entails for the entangled universes that Sony and Marvel have to unwillingly share.

For movie theater operators, the delay is a setback as they try to rebound from extended closures during the COVID-19 crisis.

Chains including AMC Entertainment, Cinemark Holdings Inc and Cineworld Group have been celebrating blockbuster ticket sales for Sony's "Spider-Man: No Way Home." While "No Way Home" is still playing in cinemas, operators have few other big titles on their schedule until spring.

The few movies to come out before spring include the "Scream," a reboot of the series set 25 years after the original, "Uncharted," an adaptation of the popular video game series starring Tom Holland and Mark Wahlberg, and "Death on the Nile," Kenneth Branagh's second entry – the first one being "Murder on the Orient Express" – in his Hercule Poirot series based on Agatha Christie's famous books, this time with Gal Gadot and Armie Hammer among the ensemble cast.

The rapidly spreading omicron variant has raised new concern about whether audiences will feel comfortable heading to theaters during the pandemic.