Universal Films Immediately Available for Streaming Due to Coronavirus

Wow, this is big news:

NBCUniversal Breaks Theatrical Window, Will Make Movies Available On Demand Immediately

NBCUniversal on Monday announced its current movies from the Universal Pictures stable — including the upcoming event family movie Trolls World Tour — will be made available on-demand at the same time they hit those theaters that remain open during the coronavirus pandemic.

The new policy collapses the traditional theatrical window as the film industry grapples with unprecedented circumstances. Cinemas are entirely closed in 32 or more markets overseas and partially closed in another 15 territories, while more countries expected to follow suit. Most, if not all, cinemas are likely to go dark this week in the U.S., were theaters have already been ordered to go dark in New York City and Los Angeles. Other locales are also seeing closures, while circuits staying open are starting to limit capacity to 50 people per auditorium per new CDC guidelines.

I wonder if they're even going to do this for Fast & Furious 9 (due out in 2 weeks)...

 

F & F 9 has been out back to April next year. It was announced a couple of weeks ago.

 

they want viewers if the cinemas are closed (empty!)

 

Will any of the revenue be shared with the independent theater owners taking a bath right now? Or the chains for that matter? Or are they bypassed completely without compensation?

 

I don't see them doing that at all.

 

Both my local cinemas closed down.

I went Sunday.

 

I feel bad for the theater owners -- they're getting hurt badly by this epidemic.

Box Office: Moviegoing Plummets Worldwide, U.S. Movie Theaters Begin Closing

 

As a business owner of two businesses, I look at things from that perspective when things like this happen, so this is a comment based on only that, not whether I think we should close businesses or not. I can tell you right now we are going to lose hundreds of mom and pop types of restaurants, and chain restaurants that are barely making it (like Village Inn who have been closing locations lately) or have a lot of debt. These places can’t just close and everything will go back to normal in a month or two! Owners can barely take one day a week off, never mind 4-8 weeks with no money coming in. And talking about theaters, just the rent on those huge multiplexes is going to make that issue very rough! For any chains in serious debt, you can kiss them goodbye unless the government bails them out (maybe they, eh, we, will). And the airline and cruise industry? They can’t just close shop and come back in a month or two as if all is normal.
I’m not sure if non business people understand the ramifications of all this (I don’t include Vidiot because your comments over the years show you understand the business side) but we are absolutely going to see a different business landscape and a substantial fallout from all of this. I am going to lose about $20,000 in bottom line money from cancelled bookings in my photo and video business and I can’t make that back up...those gigs are gone! And I’m just one little guy. I was just getting ready to purchase 4 expensive audio recorders for video, and I will now put that on hold for quite some time. That effects the company the retailer that would have sold them to me, and the mfg. Just showing folks how all this is going to go downstream and effect so many people and businesses. However...I do think it’s an action we need to take. But it’s going to be very, very expensive and there will be a lot of fallout. It's just getting started. And I’m not even talking about the stock market, a whole different kettle of fish.

 

they're not getting a single PENNY from me.

 

I think the bigger problem for cinemas may be AFTER this thing is over. People who want to see movies will turn to either physical media or the streaming platforms, even if they usually don't use those. The comfort of watching at home and having a wide selection of movies available may have a negative effect on future cinema visits. There are always people that want to see a movie in theatres but this whole craze may sway a lot of people to the streaming side of things.

 

I can definitely see some dark times ahead. My hope is that cooler heads will prevail and calm everybody down and a positive outcome can be worked out.

 

"Cinemas going dark" is a strange way of putting it. They are always dark.

 

Times is hard, sir
Times is hard

 

I think the opposite will happen. I think people will miss going out for the "big screen experience" and will flock to theaters once things return to normal.

As a great man once said, you don't know what you got until you lose it!

 

Our theaters here are locally-owned and are really well run. They announced their closure today. Yesterday our favorite downtown tap room and local craft distillery tasting room announced they were shuttering for the foreseeable future.

We have a small but strong collection of small businesses in this town that make living here lovely. I fear for all of them. There's an overwhelming sense of dread in the air.

dan c

 

LA is half a ghost town right now: I actually drove into work and saw less traffic than I've ever seen on a weekday afternoon. This is getting very scary.

I have enough work to keep me busy for another week, but after that...

 

I'd tend to agree . . . I have an A-List membership thru AMC--I just looked at the app to cancel it, then renew when back to normal; I learned they've PAUSED the memberships, i.e., no billings till further notice. A smart move--they'll lose less members right away, and be more likely to be able to count on the remaining members when all returns to some kind of normalcy.

(To quote William Bell: You don't miss your water, till your well runs dry!)

doug

 

Yeah, there's really no reason to cancel AMC memberships. It's not gonna cost you anything while they're closed!

 

So this is being put on hold ? : Vinegar Syndrome Picks Up MGM Catalog Titles

 

I cannot confirm nor deny.

 

I suspect they were ready to go anyway, just not getting into the market until they started looking at millions of suburbanites, running out of teevee shows clogging the usual streaming outlets. So long as they've got the distribution worked out, suddenly this looks like opportunity.

 

Not the actual screens.

AMC, Cinemark Close All U.S. Theaters as Cinemas Across the Country Go Dark Amid Coronavirus

 

NOW who's gonna wipe the bottoms of those seats for germs...

 

So interesting! You know, this could go either way and you can equally argue it both ways. The longer they are closed, the more people will get adept at watching another way. And it could go the way you say, that people will miss it so much you can hardly get in when they reopen. But I’m going to throw in a brand new element that could really topple it. We have already heard specific titles that are brand new, mean’t for theatrical release, that will be available for pay per view. If that goes over really well, and the studios see that bypassing the theaters worked, all bets are off. What a beautiful excuse for them to give it a whirl. I don’t know if it’s really an expense to exhibit in a theatre first, or why it is appealing to go direct to consumer, but it seems to be. I would love Vidiot’s take on this as mine is pure speculation.

As a follow up to my business take on all this, only two days later a client of mine, who owns a business in a tourist type of town, tells me two businesses in his area just closed. One is a heath food store and the other ice cream. They cannot make it for a month with no income, which is kinda what I thought we would see, though clearly not so soon. They were likely in bad shape already, but it won't take long for others to end up in the same boat. And yet it’s hard to argue that we need to take this action.

 

You are in the service industry though. Can’t you get enough work to continue through this? Seems like there would be plenty to do in your industry.