Universal breaks theatrical window for current releases as theaters shutdown, Trolls to debut day and date on streaming: What will Disney do?

D

Darkprime

Well-Known Member
Original Poster
deadline.com

Universal Making ‘Invisible Man’, ‘The Hunt’ & ‘Emma’ Available In Home On Friday As Exhibition Braces For Shutdown; ‘Trolls’ Sequel To Hit Cinemas & VOD Easter Weekend

Universal is officially making its current movies available in homes as early as Friday for $19.99. Trolls World Tour is coming early too.
deadline.com deadline.com

www.thewrap.com

Universal to Release 'Trolls World Tour' for Digital Rental on Same Day as Theatrical Release

"The Hunt," "The Invisible Man," and "Emma." will also be available on-demand for $19.99 this Friday in response to coronavirus
www.thewrap.com www.thewrap.com

This really is groundbreaking. Now all eyes are on Disney with Mulan, Black Widow, Onward. Will they get early VOD releases with theaters now out of the game? If you believe the industry studios have been wanting this for years now and now Universal made the first move. As we wait and see how Disney will respond. This could change the way we watch movies moving forward.
 
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Dead2009

Dead2009

Horror Movie Guru
If everything is shut down for an extended period of time, they will have no choice but to release those movies on Disney+.
 
LSLS

LSLS

Well-Known Member
You know, I hope this fails. I don't think it will, but I hope it does. I really don't want to see theaters go the way of malls.
 
Archie123

Archie123

Well-Known Member
I will go on a limb (not really) that Disney will never release Black Widow or any of their tent pole pictures straight to D+. They will wait until the corona craziness is over and then release. All the movies that have been released to VOD or D+ were already in the theater even if for a small amount of time. I do think that some smaller movies might go straight to VOD but not the big releases.
 
Disney Irish

Disney Irish

Premium Member
Archie123 said:
I will go on a limb (not really) that Disney will never release Black Widow or any of their tent pole pictures straight to D+. They will wait until the corona craziness is over and then release. All the movies that have been released to VOD or D+ were already in the theater even if for a small amount of time. I do think that some smaller movies might go straight to VOD but not the big releases.
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Well Trolls is not a smaller film and its going to VOD before it gets a theatrical run, so its happening at least for Universal. Disney won't push the any of these films to D+ first. As they don't have a payment portal setup in D+ to allow customers to process payments for rental or purchase. But it doesn't mean they can add it real quickly. Also they have already started pushing films to other VOD services, yes right now that is films already having a short theatrical run but that could change very easily.

They can't push off every film forever, doing so will mess up release schedule for all studios for years to come. For example with MCU films you have to release them in a certain order or else the overarching story line is not maintained. So at some point you just have to say the year is lost and make what money you can from VOD. That point is coming sooner rather than later, as I expect the decision will be made between now and Memorial Day.

Remember every day theaters around the world are closed Disney and the rest of the studios are losing money. Some money from VOD is better than no money. Plus I think you'd be surprised how much a movie can make from VOD, and Trolls will tell us that number. If Universal comes out with positive numbers from Trolls being on VOD expect all the rest of the studios to follow suit as well.
 
Archie123

Archie123

Well-Known Member
Disney Irish said:
Well Trolls is not a smaller film and its going to VOD before it gets a theatrical run, so its happening at least for Universal. Disney won't push the any of these films to D+ first. As they don't have a payment portal setup in D+ to allow customers to process payments for rental or purchase. But it doesn't mean they can add it real quickly. Also they have already started pushing films to other VOD services, yes right now that is films already having a short theatrical run but that could change very easily.

They can't push off every film forever, doing so will mess up release schedule for all studios for years to come. For example with MCU films you have to release them in a certain order or else the overarching story line is not maintained. So at some point you just have to say the year is lost and make what money you can from VOD. That point is coming sooner rather than later, as I expect the decision will be made between now and Memorial Day.

Remember every day theaters around the world are closed Disney and the rest of the studios are losing money. Some money from VOD is better than no money. Plus I think you'd be surprised how much a movie can make from VOD, and Trolls will tell us that number. If Universal comes out with positive numbers from Trolls being on VOD expect all the rest of the studios to follow suit as well.
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Trolls is not Black Widow or Mulan. Not even close.

Disney will never release either film straight to VOD or D+. They will do what every major studio has been doing which is to move the release date to later this year (James Bond) or to next year (Fast and the Furious).
 
Disney Irish

Disney Irish

Premium Member
Archie123 said:
Trolls is not Black Widow or Mulan. Not even close.

Disney will never release either film straight to VOD or D+. They will do what every major studio has been doing which is to move the release date to later this year (James Bond) or to next year (Fast and the Furious).
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You say that now, but what about 6 or 9 months from now? What if all theaters around the world are closed until 2021? Disney has no money coming in right now, they can’t sit on the sideline forever and just keep paying people. At some point they just have to bite the bullet and start releasing films on VOD and at least make the films money back.

Also you have to realize it’s only the theaters that really don’t want movies going to VOD. They are worried about losing their cut of the box office. Studios like Disney have been pushing for VOD for a long time now, it’s always the theaters that push back.

So anyways we’ll have to wait and see. But my guess is if we hit Memorial Day with the theaters still closed you’re going to start seeing Disney release more movies to VOD such as Mulan.
 
mary2013

mary2013

Active Member
Disney Irish said:
They can't push off every film forever, doing so will mess up release schedule for all studios for years to come. For example with MCU films you have to release them in a certain order or else the overarching story line is not maintained. So at some point you just have to say the year is lost and make what money you can from VOD. That point is coming sooner rather than later, as I expect the decision will be made between now and Memorial Day.
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With the MCU, nothing is being worked on. The movies have to be released in order, but what if nothing is ready? Black Widow is the only movie done. The Eternals was stopped in post-production. If BW goes to VOD, then the year really is lost. If Disney pushes back BW, when theatres reopen and people are ready to go out, whenever that is, Disney has an MCU movie ready to go.
 
Disney Irish

Disney Irish

Premium Member
mary2013 said:
With the MCU, nothing is being worked on. The movies have to be released in order, but what if nothing is ready? Black Widow is the only movie done. The Eternals was stopped in post-production. If BW goes to VOD, then the year really is lost. If Disney pushes back BW, when theatres reopen and people are ready to go out, whenever that is, Disney has an MCU movie ready to go.
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Except you have to remember the D+ MCU shows, those are part of it as well. Those are held up too. Basically the entire Disney library is on hold because of this. 2020 will be the lost year, you’ll have movies that were suppose to come out this year now coming out in 2021, and then 2021 films coming out in 2022, and so on and so on. Remember that this isn’t affecting just Disney, it’s all studios.

I just don’t understand why anyone has an issue with any film being released on VOD.
 
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Jon81uk

Jon81uk

Well-Known Member
Disney Irish said:
I would not be surprised if Disney is now working on a VOD component of Disney+.
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There is probably more chance of them working with Apple and using iTunes video, they have good history with Apple and why re-invent when there already is good places to distribute for rental and purchase?
 
Disney Irish

Disney Irish

Premium Member
Jon81uk said:
There is probably more chance of them working with Apple and using iTunes video, they have good history with Apple and why re-invent when there already is good places to distribute for rental and purchase?
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And that is what they are doing now, it just wouldn’t be that hard to add payment capability for rental or purchase to the Disney+ app.
 

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