Theatrical Future/PVOD Thread

[Nick]

So just noticed this and while at the time it seemed like a good deal for AMC in terms of just being able to stay alive, they could've seen their stock price rise coming if they had looked at GameStop and online chatter. To get to the point, TWO DAYS after AMC announced that deal, Silverlake, the investment group that backed AMC with the $900M, turned their bonds into $713M of AMC stonk and will likely make out like bandits here with billions i'd imagine.

AMC no longer has any backers or need for additional cash flow at the moment and the biggest thing to come from this is that they can pay off all of their debt now. They were a company in deep debt even before COVID, as they completely remodeled most of their theaters, bought new ones and AMC A-List was a money loser for them until the quarter right before they were forced to shut down. AMC coming out not only out of this pandemic not only with no debt, but with extra money on hand is a huge advantage for AMC over other theater chains going forward.

 

[AlexanderMBush]

NYC Movie Theaters Cleared to Reopen Next Month at 25% Capacity

Gov. Andrew Cuomo announced Monday that cinemas can reopen starting March 5

www.thewrap.com

NYC has been given the clear--Movie theaters can reopen at reduced capacities beginning on March 5th.

 

[Nick]

Tenet has held that spot for largest domestic haul in the COVID era, but slowly, The Croods 2 has gained to the point of striking distance over the coming weeks/months. Although Raya and the Last Dragon coming into theaters will certainly hurt the chance it has, it's a little less than $7M behind Tenet Domestically now with about $51M. I'm sure The Croods will wind up with a sequel due to the long exposure it's had at the top of the box office and PVOD charts as it seems to have done quite well for itself, making around $154M in total at the box office and probably quite a pretty penny at home, too. I would guess it may have actually even done better than Trolls 2 as it wasn't available for rent right out of the gate, it had three weekends in theaters before that started. To put into perspective how well it likely has done, it's STILL for rental at $20) almost 90 days into theaters.

Of course, this just goes to underscore how lackluster our box office is doing right now. China's where it's at, apparently. China holds the top 11 spots on the 2021 box office chart, with 3 films making over $100M and 2 films making over $600M. Detective Chinatown 3 actually broke many pre-pandemic records set by Avengers: Endgame, by opening with $398M in a single weekend in a single country (beating opening weekend for Endgame in the US).

 

[AlexanderMBush]

Viacom is doing a 45 day window, as opposed to how Universal and Warner have been handling theatrical release to PVOD separately now.

 

[belloq87]

I think that's a fairly reasonable window. Long enough to still incentivize people to see things in the theater, but not so long that the studio feels like they have to wait forever to get their product into other streams.

 

[Nick]

I think that's a fairly reasonable window. Long enough to still incentivize people to see things in the theater, but not so long that the studio feels like they have to wait forever to get their product into other streams.

At 31 days though, we're talking about a movie that just finished its FIFTH weekend in theaters. I think Five weeks is plenty enough time for a movie to be exclusive to theaters, especially since a movie normally makes the majority of its money in the first two weekends anyway. In normal times, by the time you hitting the 6th, 7th, 8th weekends and beyond, you're just sort of picking up peanuts at that point.

 

[Nick]

I'm surprised it such a small chain like Alamo Drafthouse survived this long without filing for bankruptcy:

 

[Nick]

Universal has moved Fast 9 back a month to June 25th, which puts it releasing on the same date as Venom 2. They also shifted Minions 2 back another year from July 2, 2021 to July 1, 2022.

This leaves Black Widow alone as the only Spring blockbuster title yet to move and it just seems like it's slightly too early still. I'd say a June release would be best. Hell, even pushing it to late May would help. But please don't do the ole okie doke again and move back every Marvel release date once again...

 

[PerceptiveCoot]

Universal has moved Fast 9 back a month to June 25th, which puts it releasing on the same date as Venom 2. They also shifted Minions 2 back another year from July 2, 2021 to July 1, 2022.

This leaves Black Widow alone as the only Spring blockbuster title yet to move and it just seems like it's slightly too early still. I'd say a June release would be best. Hell, even pushing it to late May would help. But please don't do the ole okie doke again and move back every Marvel release date once again...

I'm just surprised that Universal thinks that Minions has staying power into 2022.

Don't hit me with one of those "I mean..." posts, it's insane under any scenario that Illumination is depending so much on Minions.

 

[quinnmac000]

Universal has moved Fast 9 back a month to June 25th, which puts it releasing on the same date as Venom 2. They also shifted Minions 2 back another year from July 2, 2021 to July 1, 2022.

This leaves Black Widow alone as the only Spring blockbuster title yet to move and it just seems like it's slightly too early still. I'd say a June release would be best. Hell, even pushing it to late May would help. But please don't do the ole okie doke again and move back every Marvel release date once again...

Minions by the numbers is Universal's most profitable franchise so thats why it got pushed back 1 year....but Fast 9 will be fine against Venom.

Despicable Me/Minions costs about $57 million to make yet it makes them dollars drop like rain when in theatres and minions are still wildly popular especially in Asia. I bought a friend a minion doll for Christmas and his parents hijacked it so i had to buy two more and then his parents friends thought they were so cute and wanted me to order more on Amazon.

 

[Nick]

Minions by the numbers is Universal's most profitable franchise so thats why it got pushed back 1 year....but Fast 9 will be fine against Venom.

I don’t know what the domestic box office will be looking like then, but going against another big reals could be purposeful self-sabotage.

What I mean is... if F9 doesn’t have an opening weekend bigger than $50M, Universal gets to put it on PVOD at 17-days (and it’ll stay in theaters of course, too). Plus, F&F is HUGE in Asia and their box office has been booming.

 

[Nick]

Raya opens with a surprisingly soft $8.6M (compared to T&J's $13.7M last weekend). Of course Raya was also available for purchase on Premiere Access and wasn't shown in any Cinemark theaters which held down it's performance. Globally, it opened with $26.2M total. Tom & Jerry came in only $2M behind Raya in it's second weekend with $6.6M. T&J's Global box office now stands at $57.3M.

 

[belloq87]

Interesting that RAYA's global number is also pretty soft. I'm sure Disney was hoping it would do very well in Asia.

 

[Nick]

Interesting that RAYA's global number is also pretty soft. I'm sure Disney was hoping it would do very well in Asia.

Especially since the Worldwide total for Soul was $111.7M and it didn't even play in US theaters at all. I just think even being kind, the marketing effort was extremely poor for the film.

 

[Legacy]

I think, as a film, Raya is suffering a bit from being too “non-Disney.” Throw it in the bin with Treasure Planet/Atlantis, Emperor’s New Groove, etc. There’s still a common expectation for music and princesses in Disney films. When they don’t have that, it’s less obviously a Disney film.

Throw in the “not a castle” title card they’ve been using, it’s also like they’re advertising it as “not Disney.”

 

[Nick]

The more embarrassing thing about those numbers is that 600 theaters were open this weekend that weren't open last weekend because of New York opening and it still didn't come close to Tom & Jerry's opening last week.

 

[quinnmac000]

I think, as a film, Raya is suffering a bit from being too “non-Disney.” Throw it in the bin with Treasure Planet/Atlantis, Emperor’s New Groove, etc. There’s still a common expectation for music and princesses in Disney films. When they don’t have that, it’s less obviously a Disney film.

Throw in the “not a castle” title card they’ve been using, it’s also like they’re advertising it as “not Disney.”

nope Disney pissed off theatre chains worldwide due to premiere access..

Toho largest chain in Japan refused to show it,
Same thing in almost every country disney+ operates, certain chains refused

 

[Nick]

nope Disney pissed off theatre chains worldwide due to premiere access..

Toho largest chain in Japan refused to show it,
Same thing in almost every country disney+ operates, certain chains refused

It wasn’t Premiere Access that pissed theaters off or else Tom & Jerry wouldn’t have done so well last week. It’s that Disney was asking for such a large cut of the box office while doing PA at the same time.

 

[joelbryant11]

Sounds like the timeline of the pandemic limited the creatives on this show. Really hate that for them. I’m glad they were able to accomplish all that they did despite the circumstances.


These sum up some things Matt Shakman said on Kevin Smith

'WandaVision': Matt Shakman Opens Up About How the Pandemic Changed the Finale - Murphy's Multiverse

It’s crazy to think that WandaVision has officially come to an end. After its nine-episode run on Disney+,…

www.murphysmultiverse.com

'WandaVision' Was Originally 10-Episodes Long - Murphy's Multiverse

Release the Shakman cut!

www.murphysmultiverse.com

 

[TheGentTrent]

James Cameron not-so-subtly trying to re-take his title :