Earlier this week, NBCUniversal’s questionably confident brag about the success of Trolls World Tour on VOD platforms (it made $100 million apparently!) set off a thrilling burst of movie industry drama, with the studio saying that it would continue to release movies on-demand and in theaters even when the pandemic ends because Trolls had proven that it was a viable way to release new films. AMC Theatres boss Adam Aron quickly responded by saying that, effectively immediately, his chain would no longer be screening any Universal movies ever because of the studio’s flagrant disregard for the established business model that movie theaters are built on. Cineworld Group, the owner of Regal Entertainment, also noted that its theaters would not screen movies that don’t play by the longstanding rules of how movies work.
In a normal universe, NBCUniversal would now back down, or at least say it’s backing down and then quietly do it anyway after AMC and Regal agree to keep releasing Universal movies, but we obviously don’t live in a normal universe. As reported by The Wrap, NBCUniversal CEO Jeff Shell has politely doubled-down on his idea from the other day, noting that “the majority of movies, whether we like it or not” are watched at home and it’s “not realistic” to assume that the movie studios won’t change to account for that. Shell says he believes that consumers will eventually return to theaters and they will eventually go back to being a crucial element of how movies are released, but VOD will still be around.
Shell does offer a concession to the movie theaters (get it?), promising that releasing movies on-demand sooner than normal (or maybe day-and-date with theaters) will be a “complementary element” and not a “replacement,” adding, “We’re just gonna have to see how long that takes and where that takes us.” So it sounds like nobody’s backing down here, but it’ll be interesting to see what happens once theaters reopen and decisions like this actually start to matter.
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The best part is Shell accusing the theaters of trying to “muddle the issue” by calling out exactly what he’s doing.
I can’t really say I blame either side here…I think both are just understadbly looking out for their bussiness models.Having said that, Universal is being needlessly bold here. Movie theaters helped contrubite to so much of their sucesss, and they act like they suddnly don’t need them anymore.
It will be interesting if the directors and producers who have a history with Universal will step in and support the theatrical window. They want the big screen experience to survive and they know wounding exhibition could cause irreparable damage and Universal has been a frequent home to many greats.So that would include Spielberg, Scorsese, Jordan Peele, Paul Feig, James Wan, Ron Howard and Zombie James Whale
“They want the big screen experience to survive and they know wounding exhibition could cause irreparable damage and Universal has been a frequent home to many greats.”Care to provide a citation for this “fact”?
Scorcese already went pretty much directly to streaming with the Irishman and AMC (along with Cinemark, Regal, and Cineplex) refused to support the limited theatrical release. I’m not sure he’s quite as attached to the big screen experience as you think.
Spielberg will 100%
$100m doesn’t seem like that much of a success? The first Trolls made $120m in the same period, and that’s just domestically; it made almost $350m in theatres worldwide, which World Tour won’t come close to. Then it made another $170m in home entertainment. World Tour isn’t coming close to any of that, and that’s without competition, at a time when people have nothing to do but watch movies at home.
The fact that the new Trolls movie is surprisingly good, and all 5 in my family agree better than the first, might have something to do with this VOD winfall (that and most ppl being stuck at home, of course). They’d be wise to see how a shitty movie does for them before they start making long term plans.
Will it remove the stigma of the phrase “direct to video” or will it taint movies that don’t get an exclusive theatrical window? I just don’t understand how they’re taking the success of Trolls in extraordinary circumstances and extrapolating it to success in other, closer-to-normal, circumstances. Or is it something they’ve been wanting to do and this is just the excuse to finally pull the trigger?
The really weird thing is that Universal is the ONLY studio making these kind of statements. And Shell has put out three new statements changing his wording on the plan within as many days, indicating his bosses at Comcast are none too happy with him right now.
I just don’t understand how they’re taking the success of Trolls in extraordinary circumstances and extrapolating it to success in other, closer-to-normal, circumstances.Isn’t that what they do though – learn the simplest possible lesson they can take from anything? “People liked The Matrix! make some movies with Bullet Time!” or “Avengers made a lot of money! We need one of those Cinematic Universes by Thanksgiving!”
“Josh Trank made a kind of superhero movie that is tonally entirely different from the Fantastic Four franchise. Get him to direct the next one for us!”
i think it proves potential. obviously it’s a super weird situation and i don’t think they’re like ‘ah yes, every movie will work on this metric!’ but it’s proof that making 100 million dollars on VOD is possible, at the very least, and they made a lot more of that 100 million than they would have involving the theatres.
More the latter. The studios have long wanted to do more releases straight to home video since they keep a larger chunk of the money than they would with a theatrical release. (90% vs 50-60%) The theaters have always screamed bloody murder any time the studios tried it (See: Tower Heist)
Yeah, you gotta be very cautious extrapolating trends from the way the world is now. People are probably bingeing their way through classic, long-running series like ‘M*A*S*H’ right now, but I don’t think that proves the viability of the Hawkeye Pierce Cinematic Universe.
I mean, on the one hand… I love going to the movies. It’s my favorite form of entertainment, and not being able to go because of the pandemic sucks. (It doesn’t suck nearly as much as, you know, dying of COVID-19 or losing your job or the like, of course. First-world problems here.) We’re all accustomed to the theatrical release model, and it would suck to lose it……but we’re not going to lose it, not even if every major distributor starts doing same-day VOD releases. We might have less of it, but studios and distributors are under no obligation—legal, moral, cultural, or otherwise—to preserve that distribution model. Filmmakers and exhibitors can scream all they want about how evil Universal is being, but Universal has the right to do business how they see fit.
I agree. The model is gonna change, but theatres have withstood everything they’ve gone up against.However, I do feel theatres have brought this upon themselves. They should have been trying something different than just jacking up ticket and concession prices when online pirating took off. I know they do special screenings and events, but the fact is someone working on federal minimum wage can spend up to a days pay doing a family night out at the theatre.
I too love going to the movies, and on the topic of first world problems, I signed up for a year long membership to my favourite cinema at the end of last year, and, well look, I’m not proud of it, but I’d like to know if they’ll extend the length of it considering all these months I haven’t been able to see a film.
know what i’ll miss most out of going to the movies? the 20 minutes of commercials and previews before every showing. You cant’ get that on VOD!
This is a full on Jack Donaghy move. The Sheinhardt Wig Company would absolutely support this.
No offence to the awesome narrative power of ‘Trolls: World Tour’, but I can easily imagine a non-COVID-19 world where it didn’t perform quite so strongly. That may be worth taking into consideration.