Universal Films Immediately Available for Streaming Due to Coronavirus

Theatres aren't even allowed to be open in my state

 

Yeah I agree. It's not like people having big flat screen TVs in their house is anything new.

 

That bookends perfectly with my question about your work...why does the virus have to stop deals and work along those lines (in general, not specifically the Vinegar Syn deal)?

 

True, but if brand new theatrical releases were in our queues that could be a game changer....that’s what looks like will be different.

 

True. Honestly I hope that doesn't cause a serious blow to movie theatres.

 

Interesting point. I'm curious to see how Trolls: World Tour will be doing. It was meant for a theatrical release but it will be out digitally I believe this friday. I'm not a big Trolls fan but from what I've read it was supposed to be a pretty big release from Universal. That being said, even if it does well in these current times, it wouldn't mean that a similar result will occur when movie theatres are open again.

 

Studios still aren't willing to skip their true big-ticket releases for digital only.

They've rushed some movies already out - "Invisible Man", "Emma" - to digital, and "Trolls" will debut digitally, but I can't imagine Uni thought "Trolls" was gonna be a blockbuster on a par with "Fast and Furious" or "Black Widow".

I think they're gonna hold the true A-list movies for eventual theatrical release and only let out some "lesser" attractions straight to digital...

 

The trend before this crisis was towards streaming and away from the traditional movie theatre experience. I agree with you that this crisis will only speed up that transition. I’m sure that, as @Oatsdad notes, when this is over, some people will flock back to the theatres, but I suspect many people, particularly older people, will be scared away from public places for a long time after this is over. “Why go out to the infected movie theatre and pay $50 for my family to see a movie, before we pay for overpriced popcorn and drinks, when we can pay $10 to $15 a month for Netflix and stay home and stay safe?” That’s gonna be the reaction of millions.

 

I think releasing the Trolls flick digitally made perfect sense; one would expect it to do better business in homes anyway, and this is just a way to "skip ahead" to that part of its' bonanza status. Besides...nobody gonna sneak a florescent box of those "Trolls Edition" Oreos into a theater in springtime, when most people aren't wearing overcoats, anyway...

 

The crowd that is both tech savvy + not interested in the threatre experience are just gonna pirate the movies if they make digital debuts.

So I don't think that debuting all the movies digitally post-Coronavirus is a good idea necessarily.

 

It's affected everything, including shipping and suppliers and a lot of "inbetween" people and companies. You'd have to take it up with the label, and maybe they'll post announcements on their website and social media.

Tons and tons of TV shows have shut down, post houses have shut down, delivery companies have shut down (or reduced hours), so it's a big deal. I'm working this week, but we'll have to see about next week.

 

Well, I know we all wish you the best. I do film and photography work for the arts of many schools and this is usually the busiest time of the year. Every single show I was supposed to work on was cancelled. This is a large part of my income so it will be painful, but I take some comfort in that we’re all in this together. You are of course correct, it is and will effect everyone as our economy is tightly woven together. However, I think we’re pretty much in agreement as a nation that this is necessary. Which given the times we’re in is pretty amazing. We should be pleased that our country is putting people’s well being ahead of money, and that I think the vast majority agree with this sentiment. I hope you guys can find some work to keep you busy until things quiet down.

 

Good points. My biggest take away from what you said is a lot, I think, will depend on how bad this gets, and for how long. This is just the beginning unfortunately. We are starting to hear from experts it could be 18 months. It will be scorched earth for many businesses if that happens, and I’m not sure there will be a movie theatre industry left if that plays out. A huge piece of this puzzle that no one knows is how long this lasts. That may be the biggest element to how it plays out, and imo the longer it goes, the more films that will end up on the streaming services. My hope is we will look back 90 days from now and feel ridiculous that such a big deal was made out of this. I don’t think that’s going to be the case, but there is just so much we don’t know.

 

People keep referring to “when this is over”, as if one day everything goes back to normal. The medical experts are saying this virus is with us now, and will come back in waves. Life will be different going forward, just like after 9/11. And theaters, restaurants, stores, sports, festivals etc will never fully recover.

 

These people have been staying away for years.... More people will join them now.

 

Is there a Roku app.?

 

If you spent $150 million on production plus $50-100 million on marketing it would be impossible to recover that money via streaming only. They could try some form of pay per view, anything that would generate some fresh cash inflows.

 

A big boost for large screens / TVs.


New movies ( non theatrical showing) should just get media releases.

 

Is this even true though? Last year saw a lot of $billion + movies? People still go to see films.

Cinemas survived television and video/DVD/BR so I expect everyone to go back to the cinema when they can. It's a social experience that is here for good.

 

Google play app is on Roku.

 

One other wrinkle though: aren’t they paying interest on the film while it’s sitting? Or are the film costs paid off prior to release? I’m sure Vidiot would know. At some point they would have to just write off the losses and stream it, imo, to stop those interest payments and get what they can out of it. And of course a DVD could be issued.

Aforchione mentioned about this is going to come and go in waves. They are saying this could go on for 18 months. I think it’s going to take a while for all of this to sink in, but if you are a business owner (unless you’re Amazon selling staples) believe me, it started sinking in about ten days ago! I can’t imagine a worse economic scenario as a huge segment of folks are not going to be spending money. Obviously that is a massive driver in our country. The movie industry will bear a close look as we go forward. That is purely driven by discretionary income, though they are very fortunate that the streaming business model is in full force. Though I am reading today that other countries are encouraging Netflix to discontinue HD broadcasts to conserve band width. I don’t think that will slow down consumption at all, however.

 

Indeed it’s true. Theatre owners have been begging for the three month window to stay in force before releasing to streaming. The why aspect is a mystery to me, since the studios no longer have print costs. I can’t imagine there is much of a cost supplying the theatre’s first. Marketing is a huge expense; perhaps they would be able to spend far less if it went to streaming only, but they still would have to do some marketing. If that is indeed the real issue, it’s going to get very hard to continue with a window. However, for those of us that prefer to see a big new release in the theatre, it wouldn’t matter to me in the least if it was streamed first as I wouldn’t consider seeing a tent pole film streamed the first time. And they seem to really be limiting the type of films I enjoy to streaming at this point. The new Melissa McCarthy film is rumored to be going straight to streaming as the studio claims people just aren’t going to the theatre to see comedies like that. And it looks like the Impractical Jokers film is not doing well at all, but on the other hand they couldn’t have picked a worst time to release it, so maybe that’s an unfair metric. My wife loves the show so we went right out to see it, on a weekend prime time night, and there were maybe five of us in the entire theatre.

 

I don't know who or what Aforchione is but 18 months of this?? my accounting wired brain can see only 1 outcome a complete collapse of all economic systems, game over thank you and goodnight. Welcome to a New World Order and I'm not joking either. Movies will be very low on the list of priorities.

 

Yeah, it's still an experience that many people like to do. I've actually seen more movies over the last two years than I have in a while.

The hermit crowd would just pirate their movies either way, no way are those tech bros paying 20 dollars just to stream a movie.

 

deuce, check your DM's here .... i just messaged you.