By George Robbins
Nowadays it is difficult to find things to do that can keep us all busy since everything around us has essentially been shut down. Some movie studios have decided to help alleviate some of the boredom that we are all feeling. Movie theaters have been shut down since mid-March when this pandemic was first declared in order to curb the rate of infection. With movie theaters shut down, studios have had to make the call as to whether they should delay the theatrical releases for their films or if they should put there movies on PVOD. PVOD stands for Premium Video on Demand which means that movies would be put online without any kind of theatrical release tied to them.
Most recently, two films have had PVOD releases and have been very successful financially. Those two films are ‘Scoob!’ and ‘Trolls World Tour’ which have been selling at the top of the VOD lists so soon after their releases. These trends may not end up lasting long at all since the only real reason people are buying the films on VOD is because theaters are closed. That doesn’t change the fact that these are the current trends and this is what is currently working for the movie market during these times. So with that in mind it is of no surprise that some movies are making similar moves to this.
Universal is putting a lot of stock into the PVOD release model and it is clear that, at least for family movies this model will continue to work. So wouldn’t it make sense that for some movies, it would be a much better option to release the movie this way than to wait months on end for a theatrical release. This is clearly something that studios have to put a lot of thought into so that they don’t end up losing too much money in the long run. However, there are many reasons to delay the movies as well such as keeping faith with the theaters that were meant to show them or the fact that the movies could possibly lose more money being released now rather than later. Some believe that one of the next movies to release via PVOD will be the ‘SpongeBob Movie: Sponge on the Run.’
‘Sponge on the Run’ is the newest SpongeBob SquarePants movie that is currently slated for release on August 7th, after being shuffled around by Paramount. The question is whether their plan will continue the way that they initially had it set up since it would seem to make more sense if they released the movie to VOD earlier. Even if they don’t release the film early to VOD and decide to release it to VOD on its current release date, they would probably be much better off. Since, even when theaters reopen, people will probably not want to go out to a crowded public place even with the new health and safety rules in affect. So it would make more sense it this point, at least for safety, if they released the movie to VOD.
By George Robbins
Premium Video on Demand is a type of video on demand that sees movies be instantly released to the public for their viewing pleasure. So instead of giving a movie a full theatrical release before putting it out on demand, they just put it straight out. Universal was among the first companies to release a film straight to VOD with ‘Trolls World Tour’ and now Warner Bros. followed in their footsteps when they released ‘Scoob!’ to PVOD. There are not many movies that have actually released in this way yet, but the fact that it beat out ‘Trolls World Tour’ is nothing to scoff at. The PVOD market is doing very well in the current global market and it is making things easy for the consumer.
Other movies such as ‘Birds of Prey’ and ‘Bloodshot’ hit Video on Demand much sooner than they would have due to the pandemic. Disney even took ‘Frozen 2’ and ‘Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker’ and put the two films up early on their Disney+ service in order to give people content to watch and boost their streaming service. By putting those films up ahead of their originally announced dates, they are making far more money than they would have otherwise. This is the biggest premise of PVOD and why some companies are using this model for release instead of delaying the movies. It just makes sense to release movies like ‘Trolls World Tour’ and ‘Scoob!’ because families are looking for things to do, so this gives people a reason to buy or rent the films.
‘Scoob!’ was originally intended to debut theatrically on May 15th, but some time near the end of April, Warner Bros. decided to keep the date as the day it released on PVOD. This ended up working out for the studio because it would end up going on to outsell ‘Trolls World Tour’ after its opening weekend. When ‘Trolls World Tour’ dropped on the marketplace, it went on to be called the best digital debut ever, making about $50 million on its opening weekend. It also went on to outsell the original ‘Trolls’ movie after three weeks despite the first film being in theaters for five months. This changed Universal’s entire view on the process of PVOD and made them decide to continue with this model moving forward.
With all of this in mind, ‘Scoob!’ went on, in its opening weekend, to outsell ‘Trolls World Tour’ in both the Amazon and iTunes marketplaces. The two films are currently in a world of their own due to the fact that they are among the few to release without any kind of theatrical release whatsoever. This gives these companies a reason to want to continue with this model since it seems to be working out pretty well at the moment. The question remains, however, whether this model will remain viable moving forward when theaters reopen their doors and start showing new movies again. The only thing that we can do now is wait and see if this model can hold out when the world climate returns to the way it was before.
By George Robbins
In case people haven’t really been paying attention to entertainment news, or any news, movie theaters aren’t doing so well right now. They have been closed down since mid-March with even chain theaters like AMC about to go bankrupt. Theaters are not allowed to reopen in most places right now, and even when they are allowed, they must follow new health and safety laws in order to stay open. Thus, it is a very big deal that when theaters eventually do reopen, that they have something to show to the public to keep them entertained. If they can’t draw attention back to theaters, then they will end up losing even more money when they open.
Christopher Nolan has been trying to convince Warner Bros. to keep the original release date for ‘Tenet’ in July so that it can be one of the first big films to be released upon theaters reopening. As of now, most theaters plan to have their doors opened back up again by July which has production companies thinking. They have to decide when they want to release their films and if it will be worth releasing them just after theaters reopen. Nolan thinks that his movie should absolutely keeps its initial release spot and that it should be among the first films to be showing when people can go to the movies again. Thanks to new information, we can get a better idea as to why exactly he is pushing for the film to remain in its release spot.
Thanks to an old deal in a contract with Warner Bros., Christopher Nolan stands to gain 20% of ‘Tenet’s’ first dollar box office. With this in mind, it is easy to see why Nolan might be pushing so hard for his film to remain in its initial July 17th release slot. Even if he succeeds in getting the film to stay in its original release spot, there are still plenty of other issues that could arise between now and when the film is supposed to release. For instance, theaters could end up staying closed longer, or the more likely option is that no one will want to go out to the movies after they first open. Even if things work out the way that Nolan wants them to, people might be too nervous to go out to the movies, and for good reason since there is no end in sight for this pandemic.
By George Robbins
Disney+ is now up there near the top of all streaming sites due to the fact that Disney has a very extensive catalog of films at their disposal. Nowadays, people can’t really go out to public places in order to do things, so they have no choice but to find things to do at home. Among those things that people have to keep themselves entertained at home is streaming sites and among those sites one of the most prominent is Disney+. Disney made sure to create an extensive library of films dating way back to include all of their original films. Also included on the list of films and television that they have available are the Star Wars franchise and the MCU franchise.
Well, almost all of the MCU franchise is available to the public, but this is mainly due to deals that were in place even before the inception of Disney+ back in November of 2019. Disney has made sure that all of the Marvel films that they could make available on the service are actually on there with the most recent MCU addition being their box office record breaker, ‘Avenger: Endgame.’ They have been working on original content for the streaming network, but the established movies and shows are what keeps the site running. So, they are trying their best to get the rest of the MCU movies up as soon as they can.
Two movies that they cannot make available on their streaming service are the MCU Spider-Man films because rights for those films belong to Sony. The only other two that they cannot show due to previously negotiated deals are ‘Infinity War’ and ‘Ant-Man and the Wasp’ because Netflix still has the streaming rights for those movies. ‘Infinity War’ was meant to release on June 25th and has now been delayed a single day to June 26th. ‘Ant-Man and the Wasp’ has been delayed a bit more than that having its date of release on Disney+ changed from July 29th to August 14th. The MCU has made Disney a lot of money over the years thus far and the upcoming series are, for Disney, hopefully good enough to surpass the success of ‘The Mandolorian,’ but at this point only time will tell for all of their content.
By George Robbins
In the early 2000’s, the world received a very well done animated series in the form of ‘Static Shock.’ This show was one that was aired in the morning before most children went to school and showed us a hero we never got to see on television before. At the time, there were never really any African American heroes on television and this show gave us a character many kids could look up to. Static Shock was a hero that a lot of young children could relate to and, all around, the show gave insight into issues faced by a teen at the time. He easily became a recognizable hero to anyone who watched the show and it was a show that even adults could enjoy if they watched it.
‘Static Shock’ was a show that gave people an idea as to what minorities and people living in low income areas sometimes had to deal with at the time. It presented this world to us in a way that show what a world of heroes and villains would be like in everyday situations. Not everything is as black and white as people would expect it to be and this came through with the show. No matter what type of household you came from, ‘Static Shock’ was a show that anyone could have watched and learned from. While the target demographic for the comic was mainly African American, the show did very well as one of WB Kids’ best animated shows.
The original comic of the same name was created by a subsidiary of DC called Milestone Comics which was established mainly by a group of African American artists. ‘Static Shock’ quickly became one of their best selling comics and it was decided by Warner Bros. that they would begin airing an animated series based off it. It was the first animated series to feature a young African American man in the leading role and it went on to receive a number of different rewards, including an Emmy. Unfortunately, the series only lasted for four seasons, but it was recently unveiled by a former artist who worked on it that there was an animated movie based off the character that was meant to be made.
While it is unlikely that the movie will be made any time in the near future due to the way the world currently is, there is still the possibility it could be made. After all, we have have an incredible number of comic book movies be made in the past decade and this would be a perfect character to make a film about. The movie storyboards have pretty much already been made, it would just be a matter of whether the production company would allow the film to be made. I know I’m definitely not the only person who would want to see a feature length movie be made for the character and I do hope one gets made.
By George Robbins
With the world still essentially in lock-down due to the coronavirus pandemic, many movies that people were looking forward to working on or watching have had to be delayed. There were a lot of films that were set to be released to theaters which have been delayed to later dates this year and even next year. Those films are not exactly the worst off in this situation and, in fact, they are not going to be worse off necessarily. The movies whose productions are finished but their releases were delayed are not in a terrible position all things considered. The movies that are currently in the worst position are the ones that must still be filmed since movie productions are a tougher issue to work through right now.
Movie productions have all shut down at this point with many production studios unsure of just when they will be able to restart filming for their movies. Some productions have recently received good news when it was announced that the U.K. would be relaxing lock-down rules a bit in order to accommodate things like movie productions. Many other countries around the world have yet to make any similar announcements which means many other productions will not be able to resume any time soon. This is troublesome since many big budget films will not be able to resume any time soon based off the way this is all going.
One such big budget film is the next chapter in the ‘Jurassic World’ franchise, ‘Jurassic World: Dominion.’ Ever since the inception of the first ‘Jurassic Park,’ the franchise has continued to sell very well even if the films don’t do so well critically. Most recently, the ‘Jurassic World’ part of the franchise has made a name for itself as a box office juggernaut. This just goes to show that the market for dinosaur films filled with action is still there even after so many years. There are a large number of actors that have been a part of the franchise up until now and even some returning actors from the original trilogy. One of those actors is Sam Neill who will be returning in ‘Dominion’ and he is hopeful that filming will be able to resume soon.
The film production for the last film in the ‘Jurassic World’ franchise was already underway when the pandemic hit, so they had to put it on hold in mid-March, when everything shut down. It is unknown exactly when production will be able to begin again since new health and safety regulations must be put in place if they want to re-open any time in the near future. Neill has said that they will resume filming as soon as they possibly can, but they must work with what they have, even if they have to finish in a studio. Most details for the film are currently unknown, but we know Neill will be returning in his role as Dr. Alan Grant. As of now, the film is meant to release in June of 2021, but we will just have to wait and see if it ends up delayed.
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