Set films free plead cinemas
Hollywood has now gone more than four months without a major theatrical release
Along time ago in a pre-Covid universe far, far away, blockbusters opened around the globe simultaneously or nearly so. In 1975,
Jaws set the blueprint. Concentrate marketing. Open wide. Pack them in.
Since then, Hollywood has turned opening weekends into an all-out assault. Staggered rollouts still happen, of course, but the biggest films are dropped like carpet bombs. Anything less risks losing the attention of moviegoers. Global debuts north of US$300 million ($452m) became commonplace. Last year, Avengers: Endgame made well north of US$1 billion in a couple days.
Hollywood has now gone more than four months without a major theatrical release. While some films have found new streaming homes, the biggest upcoming ones — Tenet,
Mulan, A Quiet Place Part II — remain idled like jumbo jets on the tarmac. The leading chains are still shuttered. Recent coronavirus spikes have forced release dates to shuffle and chains to postpone reopening to August.
Now, movie houses say that despite far from ideal circumstances, it’s time for new movies. Four months of near-zero revenue has brought the US$50 billion annual business to its knees. While the beleaguered restaurant industry still has takeout and airlines continue to operate with masked flyers, the vast majority of US movie theatres haven’t punched a single ticket since March. Some have turned to selling popcorn curbside.
“The problem is, we need their movies,” says John Fithian, president and chief executive of National Association of Theatre Owners. “Distributors who want to play movies theatrically, they can’t wait until 100 per cent of markets are allowed open because that’s not going to happen until there’s a vaccine widely available in the world.
“The old distribution models of big blockbusters,” adds Fithian, “need to be rethought.”
That may mean returning to a more old-fashioned release pattern, opening films overseas first and, in the US, opening at different times in different areas. When Warner Bros announced it was delaying the release of Christopher Nolan’s Tenet because of the rise in cases, Warner Bros. Pictures Group chairman Toby Emmerich said the studio is “not treating Tenet like a traditional global day-and-date release”.
Right now, the biggest movies are getting further away, not closer. AMC, the world’s largest circuit, delayed its reopening from the end of July to mid-to-late August. After Tenet postponed indefinitely, Disney’s
Mulan followed suit. Disney also pushed back numerous releases, including films in the Avatar and Star
Wars franchises, back by a year. The coronavirus crisis has ushered in a new chapter in the often symbiotic, occasionally quarrelsome relationship between distributors and exhibitors. Splitting ticket sale revenue approximately in half, their fortunes have often been linked.
The largest studios — the Walt Disney Co, Warner Bros, Universal — now all have streaming services of their own now, along with television operations. So they have options. The on-demand release of Trolls caused a rift between Universal and AMC. But the two halves of theatrical moviegoing have worked largely in concert through the pandemic thus far.
It’s in their own self-interest. Studios have been loath to sacrifice billions in box office for their priciest and most popular releases. John Stankey, chief executive of Warner Bros’ parent company, AT&T, said direct release to HBO Max could be option for some Warner Bros movies but not the US$200 million Tenet.
With distancing protocols and other measures, cinemas have reopened in parts of Europe, the Middle East and South Korea, where last weekend Yeon Sang-ho’s Train to
Busan action sequel Peninsula debuted with US$13.2 million. Theatres in China, the world’s second largest movie market, this week reopened with 30 per cent capacity.