New survey reveals that most of us would be totally fine with watching Tenet at home. No, really.
Aux Features Film
Over the past week, AMC Theatres announced its plans to re-open locations across the country along with a new set of safety guidelines. Those plans were rightfully met with criticism, given that we’re still in the middle of a fucking pandemic. Studios have repeatedly postponed release dates for numerous high-profile blockbusters, but as those delays continue with no immediate end in sight, there’s been some recent budging. Disney is releasing Mulan as a premium $30 rental exclusive to Disney+ subscribers, for instance, and if that goes well, it’s not difficult to imagine a few other big titles following suit. AMC also struck a deal with Universal Pictures, shortening the window between theatrical and VOD rental to 17 days—far less than the traditional 90-day window.
And according to the results of a recent survey of U.S. moviegoers, obtained by Variety, most people would actually be okay with watching a major “must-see” blockbuster film at home on their regular-ass TV screens. Respondents were specifically asked about their viewing preferences in a scenario in which “attending movie theaters again is generally considered safe once the coronavirus pandemic has subsided.” If there were 90 days between theatrical release and VOD rental, 23% of those surveyed said they would definitely wait to watch a must-see film at home, while 21% said they would probably wait, and only 12% said they would definitely watch the film first in a theater. As the window between theatrical and VOD was hypothetically shortened, more respondents said they would definitely or probably wait to watch a film at home.
The percentages might be disheartening for those who still value the experience of seeing a film in theaters, which were already struggling prior to the pandemic. Although the numbers are low, there isn’t a significant decrease in the percentage of people who would definitely or probably see a film in a theater first, even as the release window shortens. And 15% of those polled said that even if they could watch a film immediately at home with no release window, they would still probably or definitely see it in a theater first.
For now, the more pressing results come from the portion of the survey regarding upcoming blockbuster releases. 54% of respondents said they would “prefer” to see Tenet in a theater first, but would ultimately be okay seeing it at home instead. 30% said they don’t care about seeing Tenet in theaters at all, and thus do not care if they make Christopher Nolan cry. Responses were very similar across the board, with close to or just over 50% of people saying they would prefer to watch films like Wonder Woman 1984 and Black Widow in theaters first, but would be okay with a premium VOD rental instead. While this may not bode well for the theater business in a post-pandemic landscape—whatever the hell that looks like—it does prove what we already know: the people crave new content. Give the people what they crave.
One final portion of the survey may offer a compromise of sorts: 42% of responders said they are very interested in attending a drive-in movie, while 31% said they are somewhat interested. So maybe there’s still hope. But not for Christopher Nolan, who is very sad about not being able to force you out of your homes during a pandemic to watch his new movie.
84 Comments
It’s the only way I’ll ever see it, so yeah, totally fine with me.
No way would I want to VOD something like Tenet. Theater or Blu-Ray.Maaaaaybe MCU films, but streaming Tenet or, really, anything late Nolan? I don’t want to play the “Connection glitch or director intent?” game.
Yeah same.. honestly these polls mean nothing to the actual consent of General audiences if they want to see it they will. Especially like she stated seeing TENET in imax or a regular ass TV?
“Only Nolan would be audacious enough to put a spinning blue wheel on screen for 40 minutes at the most intense moment of the movie!”
“I thought I was watching a highly complex black hole when it turned out I had A LOT of dead pixels in the middle of the screen.”
And the Palme d’Or goes to…Spinning Circle! Directed by Christopher Nolan!
I don’t really run into this problem. Maybe you should change your internet provider.
I’m not going to watch Tenet for the first time VOD or Blu-Ray, and I’m not going to the movie theater any time soon either. Nolan knows damn well he made that movie specifically for the theaters too. All I can do is hope he just keeps delaying it over and over again until National Vaccine day.
I wouldn’t expect it to come out on Blu-Ray before a honest to goodness chance at a theatrical release. Nolan has that pull.That said, -IF- we get a disc release before theatrical, some real shit has gone down and, well, probably consider getting the disc at that point.
I’m also perfectly happy with not seeing it at all if they’re only releasing it to theaters in the middle of a fucking pandemic.
Yeah, that’s what they’re going to do. They’re going to release it theatrically during a pandemic and then never ever in any other format after that.
Because, you know, they don’t want money.
Theres more countries out that which actually have their shit together decently.
What if they gave you a complimentary souvenir Tenet face mask? Ooooh, now we’re talking.
Karen complains she is not forced to wear a Tenet facemask.
Mulan isn’t going to get my to drop $30 for a rental but I’d have my projector warmed up and popcorn made within a minute of them saying Black Widow, Wonder Woman or Tenet can be rented. Yeah I would love to see them in theaters but that ain’t happening for me this year, even if they open.
Can I have some of your popcorn, you silly goose?
No, we’re not sharing food. There’s a pandemic.
I was really excited to see Mulan when it came out, but there’s no way I’m paying $30 to rent it. The same goes for pretty much all of the films you listed, all of which I probably would have gone to see in the theaters in normal times. I’m not that starved for content that I’m willing to pay 3x more than I would normally to see something. I suspect I’m not alone in this, particularly with the amount of people who, like me, have seen their paychecks shrivel up and die during the pandemic. If they priced it closer to an actual movie ticket, even if it were a bit more, then I might be interested. I’d drop $15 on Mulan or Wonder Woman or Black Widow. But $30? Fuck no.
I get that, if I were single it would hurt to spend that. But I have a family of four so $30 is less then it costs to take them to the movies. Which is what I suspect the pricing model is more based on
For a family it’s a regular or better price. Even just like 2 rooms $15 isn’t absurd. For one person yeah it’s a bit.
Streaming high-budget content comes with the caveat of having compressed music/sound effects. For anyone that enjoys theater quality viewing experiences, and spent money on anything more than a sound bar, this sucks donkey balls.Will def be waiting for blu-ray or 4k rental. Oh well
I wasn’t gonna pay to see it in the theater anyhow unless it was playing at the drive in with Bill & Ted.
Tenet becoming a flashpoint for premature theater re-opening makes me feel like I’m okay if I just never see it at all. Whatever interest I had in the film before has dissipated.
i’ve already forgotten about most movies i thought i was excited for. really goes to show what a few months off a routine does.
I’ve managed to keep the candle burning for Bill & Ted 3, but that will be 100% fine from my living room.
My local theater (a Regal) is opening Friday, and to pad out their screens, they’re also showing Empire Strikes Back, Force Awakens, The Goonies, Jaws, and some others. I don’t care a bit about the Russell Crowe thing, which looks like something that would come and go without much notice in normal times. It’s going to be funny if the box office results come out next week and it’s lost to something from the 80’s that everybody already owns a copy of.I was thinking that since that theater has been closed since March, it would almost be tempting to go to the first show of the day Friday before anyone had a chance to contaminate it. Walk straight in, keep a mask on, no concessions, get a ticket online so they just have to scan your ticket on your phone. As long as you could be assured you were going to be the only one in there. I’m not going to do it obviously, but it’s tempting for the chance to see Unforgiven on a movie screen again.
Yeah, I read AMC (our only decent local theater) is doing the same thing — would 100% go see ESB except for the whole “pandemic” thing.
I don’t think it will be your last chance to see the older movies. There’s at least a 3-4 month gap between movie production(with major movie production having an even bigger gap). So if there’s a vaccination in 6 months or so there still won’t be a big enough supply of new films to really keep a chains screens full. I think this will be even more true if more stuff gets released VOD.
Would make sense if they just release it in summer 2021.
That is, if… you know.
Lucky for me I have a 100 foot wide screen, an a Norelco DP 70 project with platter system, so I can watch 70mm films from the comfort of home. Joking aside, I think Mulan’s roll out is going to settle a lot of things. Because it’s going to be a very long time before enough screens are open again to generate the necessary BO returns for Tenet or Wonder Woman. God knows when they’ll actually be able to FILL the seats that those screens serve. If the returns for Mulan are commensurate to what it would’ve gotten for a traditional theatrical rollout, I think you’ll see a lot of the studios follow suit, and release their shelved blockbusters in this fashion, because the theater industry is so badly hobbled, it’s hard to say if it will EVER be the same.
even if mulan makes way less money overall that it would have theatrically it will still probably generate more money for disney specifically than if it had landed in theatres (in a normal year), right?what percentage does disney get from BO sales? (i know they have a pretty special, strong-armed deal to begin with)
That’s a very good question, and one I can’t really answer. I’ve heard all kinds of different things about how theaters and studios divvy up the BO. The most common arrangement I’ve heard of it a descending scale, where in the first weekend of release, the take is 90/10 studio/theater, and each subsequent week it goes down until it hits 50/50, where it stays. This is why studios are so keen to make big bank that first week, and why a film can be termed a “flop” or an under performer, even if it rakes it in, because against the budget, and marketing costs, it may not be enough, if the take decreases each week as the theaters get more money.This model is also why theaters like to cram in screenings and have multiple screens, so they can get more cumulative income from repeat showings of the same film.
Isn’t Mulan only on D+, but for $30 to rent? If so they get everything and potentially new subscriptions. I feel like I read that.
Precisely. That is why this is a big test. If Disney+ can make as much as they might have through theaters, only this time they’re keeping 100 percent of the profit, that’s it for theaters. Forget all that BS about loyalty to theater chains, and the magic of the going to the movies. The minute the studios know they can make the same (or more) without the middlemen, they will abandon the theaters in a heartbeat.
I think movie theaters will still always get stuff, just not now because it’s stupid. I don’t think this will lead to a nail in the coffin scenario of chains, like some like to predict, because people have so many options now and still go. It’s not like Drive Ins are getting exclusive new releases. However maybe VOD and theatrical release will coincide more.
I’d say you’re correct. I think the best theaters can hope for is eventually coexisting with streaming platforms. Day and Date releases will become common.
Mulan is going to make a metric shit ton of money. Just watch.
I agree. I think people will absolutely pay a premium if it means they’ll get to see a AAA level studio production from home. And it’s going to be death to the traditional theatrical model.
I doubt it
At this point I’ll just read a plot summary of Tenet online, just to be mean to Nolan.
I’ll watch a PowerPoint on it, no even better a Prezi, but filmed on a camcorder.
Some stuff happens and at the end there’s like a twist with time travel. You are impressed then promptly forget the entire movie five minutes after leaving the theater. I forgot the slides at home.
Or, you could just watch Inception, and shout ‘TIME TRAVEL’ really loudly every time someone says the word ‘dream’.
“You have to learn to TIME TRAVEL a little bigger, darling.”
If Nolan wants me to see this movie before there’s a vaccine, he’d better agree to put it out on VOD. Doing anything else is more disconnected from reality than his movies.
My local I-Max theater played a scene from the movie back at the beginning of the year, and it was incredibly noisy. Much ado about nothing.
Eh. The Prestige, Batman Begins, Dark Knight, Dunkirk – decent popcorn funInterstellar, Inception, Dark Knight Rises – boring overwrought dorm-room philosophy cgi jerk-sessions. Memento – saw it so long ago I don’t really remember it (or do I?)
These numbers are kind of meaningless without a pre-pandemic comparison. Just like everything else, there are a few people who really care about how something is presented, and a very large number of people perfectly content to watch it on their phones.I mean, there are also a large number of people who are content to eat MacDonald’s 4 times a week, drink instant coffee, drive a Ford Focus, wear whatever clothes are on sale, use an off-the-shelf Dell laptop for gaming, drink Miller Lite, eat Red Barron Frozen Pizza, ride a Schwinn, and listen to whatever pop music the local radio station plays as an MP3 instead of a niche band in a lossless format. That’s just fine for them. But everybody has something that they care about more than most people do. Maybe it is anime, sports, food, gaming, movies, clothes, or something else. Those people want to appreciate their passion in the best possible setting and may be willing to incur a small amount of risk to do so. You can call them hipsters, but there is probably something you take seriously that makes them roll their eyes. As long as the risk can be managed, it may be reasonable to let them do it. A fully packed football stadium is not reasonable, but maybe a 10% full theater is. It’s all a matter of degree.For us, even before the public health emergency, we tended to go to the movies in the middle of the week in the early afternoon when 6 people in the theater was a lot. So I might be willing to go now, on a Wednesday to see a 1PM showing in IMAX, where everybody is 6′ apart or more and required to wear masks.
Seems like an unnecessary shot at the Ford Focus haha
Especially for those of us with the IMAX/Dolby equivalent of the Focus, but I did lol at OP
The problem you’re not seeing is that given how stupid and careless people have been about not wearing masks and social distancing, there will be a high risk of exposure. Is it really worth your health and life to watch a movie in a infected building over the safety of your own home? For most of us, its a no. You can live without an IMAX theatre for just one year.
That misses the point.If pre-pandemic 60% of people would be happy seeing it at home and now 65% would be happy, then that is not a very big difference and the headline is misleading.If I would be seeing it in a very large theater with nobody within 20 feet of me and less than a dozen people in the whole place (which was quite common for us seeing anything not “Star Wars” 6 months ago because of the times we saw movies) then the risk is very low.We spent an hour at the Field Museum last Thursday afternoon. I doubt there were 500 people in that 480,000 SF building and all of them were wearing masks. Almost all of them were even wearing them properly. Most rooms we were all alone and never more than about 6 in any single exhibit. All well seperated. That’s an acceptable risk to me because it is very, very, small.
The point you’re missing is that all is takes is just one to ten people of that 65% to be stupid and careless enough to spread it to the remainder of that 64%, especially if they’re super spreaders. A large, sprawled museum and art gallery is not the same as a small windowless box of a theatre with no natural ventilation, and people removing their masks to eat popcorn, or and talk to whoever they came to the the movie with, and no one there to make sure that masks stay on. If you were here in the northeast where I live, where we flattened the curve and people actually treat it seriously and everyone mostly complies with mask wearing and social distancing, you’d have a valid point. But if you’re in a part of the country where its still raging out of control, compounded by lots of people who refuse to wear masks because of “freedom” or “masculinity” or some kind of stupid bullshit, then hell no, it is not worth the risk. You should take the headline and poll with a huge pinch of salt. Sure, people are happy that theatres are open again because its a sense of everything going back to normal, but then once they think about it, as many commenters are saying here, its not worth the risk. Even if it just twelve people in the whole theatre. Again, all it takes is just 1-4 of them who take off their masks and starts talking or eating and their droplets spread across the room.
I’m in Chicago, where people take it seriously and largely comply with recommendations. That’s one reason I feel comfortable doing it. The curve has also been flattened here and pretty much all the small rise in Illinois comes from downstate and other rural areas where Trumpies like to sue the governor for infringing on their rights to be stupid.
I’m glad you said were you were in Chicago. I was thinking midwest, Minnesota specifically, with those examples you gave.
For me, it really depends on the capacity. if it’s 30% capacity I would consider it. Even unrelated to the pandemic, I like the idea of less people in the theater. Less chance of someone’s phone bothering you, or someone sitting in your pre-chosen seat, or sitting directly next to a stranger, or someone kicking the back of your seat, or someone walking past to go to the bathroom… the fact that it makes it healthier now makes me feel slightly vindicated for enjoying my introverted tendencies.
Hey! I’ll cop to most of those, but Miller Lite?
I usually like your posts but this one disturbed me. Take a moment and appreciate that some people driving a Focus and eating at McDonalds, et.al. might not really have a lot of financial options. I make a good living right now; way above the average. But I grew up on food stamps with a mom who would work multiple jobs and who I watched cry about not being able to find work when she wanted to. There is not always a CHOICE for people. So your post really rubbed me the wrong way. I doubt it was intended as such but it came off condescending. Don’t judge until you have walked a mile in someones shoes.
I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to be classist. I should have thought about that.
No foul. Like I said, I doubt it was intended that way. But I am also sure that people in that situation would not feel all happy inside reading their lives they are sort of stuck with described as something bad.
I don’t really think they are all bad, many of them are perfectly adequate. If we can leave my classism bias aside, nobody really needs a Lexus whether they can afford one or not. A Focus or a Civic will get you to work or the grocery store and back just fine. Some people who are lucky enough to have the choice, choose something different because it makes them happy. Some people who could buy something different get no joy out of a “nicer” (for lack of a better word) vehicle and choose to apply their resources to other things. My point is that pretty much everybody who can afford it has some things they are passionate about and spend money on, and other things that they don’t and they usually wonder “why does that guy spend so much money on his car?” Specifically for movies, some people feel that a theater is a better experience and are willing/able to afford it, and others say “why did you and your family spend $60 to see Tenet when I can cast it from my phone onto my 27″ TV in 4 months for $2.99?” To bring that all back to the point of the article, if the same number of people feel that Tenet on a 5″ phone is fine now as did pre-pandemic, than the whole supposition of the article is wrong. Basically, the author has no control group for this experiment so the data can’t really be interpreted.
The other thing we need to consider that wasn’t mentioned in your (admittedly well-written) message is profitability for the theaters themselves. It’s one thing to take the “well let’s just run the theaters at 10% capacity!” approach to movie theater attendance, but I’m not fully convinced that theaters CAN do that and continue to turn any kind of profit. We’ve long admitted that theaters mostly stay afloat thanks to the sale of concessions. When you drastically cut that number to a tenth, or even a fifth, of the people who used to come to see shows… does that leave enough profit to even keep the lights on for large tentpole films where the studio is taking the lion’s share of the box office receipts? I am not convinced that it does.
It’s also meaningless because the surveys for SPECIFIC movies are pretty much what you’d expect: the majority of people would prefer to watch them in theaters, but aren’t exactly married to the idea. https://variety.com/2020/film/news/wonder-woman-1984-tenet-james-bond-theater-preference-survey-1234738046/
Dr. Emilio you are a treasure to your profession and Kinja. Your comments alway include something called common sense, which most people lack today.
I’m not concerned about going to the theater for the same reason I’ve not been concerned about going to restaurants: I don’t like eating or watching movies around other people so I know when to go to avoid them. I’ve been out to eat about a dozen times since restrictions were lifted, and I’d say about half those times I was the only one eating. The most persons I’ve seen when I went into a restaurant was 6 (and that was because there were 4 at one table), and I sat somewhere where I couldn’t even see them.
As much as I want to see it in the theater, I can get a close enough approximation at home by turning off all the lights, turning up the volume, and mandating that there will be no pausing of the movie and no talking during the movie among my family, under penalty of me tripling the number of dad jokes I emit per unit time.
Have people wear masks have parties of no bigger than 2 people with an empty seat between each party, easy. No need to be afraid of going to the movies.
A bunch of AMC’s opening shows on Thursday (15¢) are sold out. Albeit at 30% capacity, but still.People are gonna do what they’re gonna do. And WB is playing hardball with
If you hold your phone really close to your eyes, it’s basically the same thing as IMAX.
I’m just happy I’m not dead yet.
I would probably watch way more movies if they were available at home soon after release.
Watching it this weekend on the big screen here in Sydney.
Without reading through all the comments which may have already addressed this Mulan for $30 on Disney+ is really you having the right to see Mulan as many times as you want to as long as you stay subscribed to Disney+.
Technically, not a bad deal as you might find yourself interrupted the first time you sit down to watch and unable to pick up a week or more later so unlike a rental that will lock you out inside of 72 hours or so regardless of whether or not you finished the movie being able to pause and pick up where you left off days, weeks, or even months later could be attractive to some folks who really wanted to see films like Mulan but now like me and everyone else want to stay far away from a movie theater…lol.
Nolan grits his teeth, vows to install theatre quality projectors and screens into every home in America.
I’m seeing Tenet this coming Sunday in a very nice theatre. I also don’t live in the USA. Win Win for me!
I live in Western Australia, and in about a week I’m gonna watch Tenent on a massive cinema screen, because our Premier didn’t fuck around.
“But not for Christopher Nolan, who is very sad about not being able to
force you out of your homes during a pandemic to watch his new movie”
Wow, that is an unnecessary dig given what he’s done pre-pandemic to help theaters survive along with the letters and push he made during the pandemic to help them get funding and stay afloat.
This might sound like an “it’s never going to catch on” thing to say, but I don’t think Tenet has a chance of breaking even. It won’t send Warner Bros. to the edge of bankruptcy like Heaven’s Gate did for United Artists, but it potentially could taint Nolan’s career if it doesn’t work out.As much as I love Nolan’s films, I feel he’s slowly becoming this really arrogant “my way or the highway” filmmaker. I hope Tenet keeps him in check…
Fuck I would LOVE to just end the movie theatre experience for new releases once and for all and just watch that shit in the comfort of my own home where no one talks through the damn film except for me and mine.
I am going to be clear on this: I would much rather watch movies at home in any situation. The single and only reason I ever watch a movie in a theater is because I do not want to wait until it is available to watch at home. And I do go to the theater for some movies that I am excited about. That has been true even before the pandemic. If I had the ability to watch any new release movie at home; even at a premium price, then I would do so. I would be perfectly fine paying two or three times the average ticket price to be able to watch the movie on release day from the comfort of my own home. Nothing about the theater is more compelling to me than that. Not the screen sizes, not the often excellent audio, and certainly not being around other people (who are stranger to me). I acknowledge that there are those who see things differently. But for me, there are zero compelling aspects to the theater experience aside from the fact that it is the only place to see new movies when they come out. I would be perfectly content of the theater system went the way of the telephone on the wall or analog TV.
I think one thing that’s good about the theatre is that you can watch really boring movies, and you’re more likely to pay attention. A lot of classic art films really test your patience. I turned Stalker off several times before finally sitting through the whole thing at a theatrical screening.
On another note from another tirade I posted here… There is not a movie made, being made, or even planned that would have me go to a theater in the middle of a pandemic. It is foolishness. Even if I loved going to the theater (which I don’t) I would not be as stupid as to do so for any movie at all. Even one that I loved. I’ll wait several months with my health less at risk, thank you very much.
Right now, I’m watching movies at home. The theaters are literally closed. But if I’m Christopher Nolan, I want people to see my movie the way I shot it. You don’t do 70 mm and IMAX just to have someone watch your film on an iPhone.