Universal Films Immediately Available for Streaming Due to Coronavirus

I agree, people still go to the theatre for the billion dollar spectacle movies like Avengers. But art films like Roma and The Irishman for all intents and purposes were Netflix exclusives, although they had limited theatrical runs for prestige and to qualify for Oscar nominations. The trend has been clearly towards everything but the biggest special effects blockbusters moving to streaming. And this crisis will only speed up that trend, in my opinion. People are going to cocoon and shelter in place for a long time after this initial crisis is over.

 

The Hunt, The Invisible Man, and Emma and now available to rent on ITunes for $19.99 CAN. I wonder how long until they’re $6.99 to rent?

 

Yeah, $20 is a bargain if you're a family of four, but if you're single that's far too steep (at least for me).

 

Pass, no way I'm paying that much for a one shot rental when in three months or so it will be $4.99 to rent and probably cheaper to own.

 

Yeah I doubt I will drop $20 on a new release especially since I already paying for cable, Netflix, prime video, crave and free Apple TV.

 

Interesting...

Pixar's Onward is available for digital download ...today. It will also be on Disney+ in 2 weeks.

 

We long ago switched over once home theater tech started to really advance, like reasonably priced pixel shifting 4k projectors with great black levels.

 

Seems to be a trend now. The excellent Sonic the Hedgehog is also gets an early (March 31st) release with a physical release slated for May 19th. Wonder what movies are gonna follow suit. This is gonna be an interesting time for movie releases...

 

I don’t remember his name but I believe it was Variety that just interviewed a rep spokesperson for the theaters association and he’s plenty pissed that Universal moved Trolls to pay per view. He stated (or threatened, depending on your point of view) that the theaters are not going to forget. He gave the others a pass since they had at least started their run in theaters.

 

Two of us watched the Invisible Man last night for $20 ( liked it a lot) For $10 each it was a deal. No $5 drinks or &10 popcorn. No gas or parking costs and we made dinner at home.

Of course I prefer watching most films in a theater but we were on the edge of our seats for some of it and actually saved $50-$100 if we had gone out.

 

I was on the edge of my seat when I saw it theatrically... because I wanted to leap up and scream at the mass stupidity.

Awful, awful movie!

 

Well once it kicked in it worked quite nicely for the both of us.

yeah I read some of the thread how many thought parts didn’t make any sense but for us , it was nice escapist fare. Didn’t need to be scientifically accurate.

I was sold.

 

To be clear, my complaints had nothing to do with science. If I couldn't swing with the idea of an invisible man, I wouldn't have gone.

It's all the rest of the idiocy!

But I'm glad you enjoyed it - seriously. Even when I hate a movie - and dear lord, did I hate that movie - I never begrudge someone else their happiness!

 

Yes a lot of idiocy. But lots of people are idiots in real life anyway.

 

$20 to rent a movie at home sure seems expensive, but, as you correctly point out, it’s a lot cheaper than taking a family out to the theatre.

 

Well it’s a first run new film. Rentals are usually $4-6. All new territory now.

 

The new Vin Diesel film Bloodshot went straight to digital yesterday. Interesting that on iTunes it’s only available to buy ($24.99) and not to rent for $19.99 like the other films were last week. On ITunes it says Bloodshot is available to rent on June 7th. That seems like a long time.

I’d probably rent Bloodshot for $15.

 

I don’t get the whole concept of “buying” a movie you can’t hold in your hand. Why not just rent it if you don’t want physical media? I would never trust it. I do watch movies I enjoy repeatedly, so for me buying makes sense but most people I don’t watch a film once, maybe twice, so renting is a lot cheaper in that case. My wife lost all of her purchased music a while back and can’t get it back. I’m sure it’s her fault but the point is she paid for something she now can’t use, and worse, if she want’s to “own” it, she has to buy it all over again. No thanks!

 

I agree. My collection on someone’s Cloud.
Ahhhhhhhhh........no.

 

What service was she using?

 

There’s a lot of very good deals on a ITunes and Google Play to purchase TV series, both individual seasons and complete shows. I’ve bought a few tv shows either because it wasn’t available on any streaming service or it was cheaper to buy rather subscribe to the channel. I’ve never bought a digital movie.

 

Watched it over the weekend...a very good sci-fi action flick.

 

But by then there will be treatments, cures, immunities, etc. It's not going to be this brand new mystery we're starting from square 1 on.

 

The flu vaccine isn’t 100% effective, because the flu virus mutates. And even if we find a 100% effective vaccine or treatment for Covid-19, it seems pretty clear that, after Ebola, SARS, H1-N1, and now this coronavirus, that new pandemics are likely to be a problem for the foreseeable future. Unless this crisis totally shuts down global travel and trade, new contagions will likely emerge and spread around the world just like this one has.

I hope I’m wrong, but I don’t think the world is simply going to go back to “the way it was” whenever this crisis is over.