By George Robbins
Without a single doubt in anyone’s minds, this year has easily been one of the most difficult years for a large number of people and that isn’t going to stop going into 2021. Although vaccines are beginning the process of rolling out at the moment, the fact remains that it will be a long time before immunity is properly spread to the public. This is also assuming that the vaccines actually end up working as intended and people actually end up becoming immune to the virus after getting the vaccine. In the meantime, we will still be stuck inside for the most part until the world as a whole can decide whether it is safe to resume normal activity once again. This leaves a lot to be desired by much of the world who are trying to get out of the house and be able to do something for once.
Many people have been resigned for most of the year to staying in the house waiting for businesses that they would regularly frequent to be open to the public once again. A few months after the pandemic began, we started seeing businesses like restaurants start opening again for the first time, though with restrictions. Most restaurants could only really allow outdoor dining because they have to follow the social distancing rules which also limits the overall number of people that can be in a business at a time. Obviously this has made it difficult for most businesses to actually get stuff done properly as they cannot get anywhere near as much business done. Without a means of actually getting a lot of business, it would be easy to assume that businesses would start to fail a bit.
No industry has suffered from this so much as the film industry and more specifically, the distribution side of it which is things like the releases. Obviously it can be assumed that theaters didn’t exactly have a lot going for them when they first reopened but that wasn’t going to stop them from finally reopening to the public. By the middle of August, most theaters everywhere had been reopened and were doing their best to draw people in with the small variety of films at their disposal at the start. This meant that their saving grace that they were hoping for had to be a blockbuster movie and it had to be coming out very soon after they opened up again. This movie would be the new Christopher Nolan movie ‘Tenet,’ at least that was what they were hoping for, but things turned for the worse not long after release.
When ‘Tenet’ first released to theaters, it released in the international market before it released in the domestic market due to a surge in cases in the States. The movie was originally supposed to premiere back in the middle of July, but this plan went to the wayside because theaters could not find a good period of time to reopen. Eventually, once AMC began the process of opening their doors, Warner Bros. decided on a release date for ‘Tenet.’ The dates for release were at the end of August and at the start of September for the domestic market and these two weekends saw a decent amount of traffic hit theaters for once. Unfortunately, this was not going to last in the domestic market because the next few weekends only saw a few million each domestically.
Even from that point on, the market for the movie internationally started to slowly wane, but it was the main reason that the movie was able to stay afloat. There was no way for them to really make money from that point forward and Warner Bros. ended up losing a lot of money due to the “failed” theatrical release. They needed a total of $500 million before marketing expenses just to apparently break even on the movie and that was unfortunately something that was not meant to be. It has been a couple of months since then and there hasn’t really been any movies put into theaters that have generated any kind of decent income. This has caused many studios to waver on just what they want to do moving forward and there is no guarantee that things would get better. So after the ‘Tenet’ incident, most big releases were pushed out of this year and into next year to accommodate for better release windows.
Of course, most studios moving their release dates out of this year means that movie theaters were going to start losing money even more than they already are. Some theaters once again shut their doors to try and save money while others are about to go bankrupt due to lack of new income. They have been desperate to get more movies coming through their doors and thus they have implemented the plan that they announced a couple of months back which would allow movies to release sooner. Essentially, the plans goes like this: theaters will have exclusivity to new movies coming out for a period of 17 days, after which they can be released digitally to the public. This plan was one that was obviously unheard of but theaters are desperate at this point and want to draw people back in by any means even if it hurts them in the long run.
Normally, theaters would have exclusivity deals that would last upwards of months before the movies were able to release to the public for purchase. There is no one who actually liked this plan except for, obviously, theaters because it meant that they held most of the power in their own hands and they can do whatever they want with new movies until a certain amount of time is up. On top of this, movie theaters are always given a sizable portion of the money that is brought in by the movie tickets sold as well as concessions. With a lot less people now wanting to risk their health and safety just to go out, theaters haven’t been getting the business they need in order to stay open and they were forced to take the new deal. If they could get at least some people through their doors, that still works out better for them overall.
Movie theaters have always been the ones to get the best deal out of movie releases, but now it would appear that studios are the ones that are making out for once. Of course, they all make more money overall if theaters were functioning properly, but since this isn’t the case, studios are trying to get money the best way they can. Most people are still stuck at home on a regular basis and need something to do to keep themselves busy therefore, releasing new movies digitally works out better in the end. There are very few people out there that actually dislike seeing new movies so of course there would be a market for these new films. Thus, studios have been trying to get their new films out to the public as fast as they possibly can.
If things were normal, movies going to theaters would benefit a studio because that studio would make money from the film being in theaters as well as digital and physical sales later. Now that films being in theaters and not being available digitally is a huge downside to studios, they are trying to get their films out as quickly as they can while taking advantage of theaters. By releasing to theaters first it does two things which are the building of good faith between the studio and theaters as well as making more money for the studio. Things seem to be changing though as this is not the only change which has been discussed as of late and people are actually going to see movies release in multiple places at once. Well, specifically, people will be seeing movies release on streaming services while simultaneously being released in theaters.
A few months ago, theaters tried destroying the idea that movies should be released on multiple platforms at the same time and it resulted in a stalemate between companies for a while. Eventually they came up with the aforementioned deal from above where theaters would get exclusivity to new movies for at least 17 days. Theaters are unfortunately just not in the position to try and talk their way out of anything new that comes up after that deal or instead of it. They are actually being taken advantage of at this point by people in studios who want to make the most of their film releases while partially helping theaters. As previously stated, showing movies in theaters does attract a crowd, and while it may not be as large, it is still a little bit of extra cash to keep things going.
Warner Bros. is taking it that little step further than Universal tried doing some months back which is that they are trying to get their films to release at the same time as their theatrical release. To be a bit more fair, they are trying to get their new movies to release on their streaming service HBO Max because they need to drive traffic there somehow. Although the pandemic may begin to calm down at the start of 2021, things are still going to be pretty ridiculous for the remainder of the year. As such, studios need a long term solution which will make it easier for them to get work done and bring people to them. Warner has been trying to make their HBO Max service work for over half a year now, and things still aren’t turning out great for them.
The HBO Max streaming service is one that has become something kind of strange to a lot of people because of the way that it is being handled by the public. Warner released HBO Max at the end of May as a way of finding their place among the streaming landscape which is now allowing other companies to flourish. If those companies are able to bring in a steady base of customers, then they can certainly get a lot more money in the long run from subscription fees. HBO Max started off with boasting from the company that they would be putting thousands of hours up on the service at launch and that it would be their entire catalog going up just like Disney+. Unfortunately this tactic hasn’t been working out as great as they originally thought it was and they are not getting as many subs as they originally hoped for.
Considering the size of their library, it is difficult to try and guess exactly why people aren’t signing up for the streaming service. On the other hand, most people can recognize that the service may just not have everything that they want on it and therefore they aren’t interested in subscribing. Thus, it would seem that Warner is now doing what they think is necessary to get more people to flock to their service and that is by putting up new releases. Anything that is new and interesting can catch people’s attention and in this world of digital convenience, this is the best way for them to ensure that they don’t lose more money than necessary. Their method that they have chosen to go with to get more subs to their service is to release their new movies both in theaters and on their HBO Max service.
Obviously if they are putting new movies up on their service while they are released simultaneously in theaters it will catch peoples’ attention. They kicked off this method of releasing their future content when they announced that this would be their way of releasing the new ‘Wonder Woman 1984.’ Over this past weekend, they have made it known even more that they will actually be doing this with all of their upcoming 2021 movies that they are releasing. Even if the pandemic does somehow miraculously end, we are going to see movies drop on HBO Max at the same time that they drop in theaters which completely goes against everything we know. If movies can release in this way from Warner, there isn’t too much getting in the way for other large studios to do the same to get movies out there. This is what they feel is the best possible way for things to go moving forward and it is bound to change things for the industry in the future.
By George Robbins
This pandemic has easily become one of the craziest things to happen over the past few years and it has fundamentally changed the way that we see the world nowadays. After all, there is not a moment that goes by now where we don’t think that we could be infected with the virus or that we can’t spread it to other people. On top of this, we have already seen how this managed to affect the world around us because of the various industries that are now suffering due to all of this. Among all of the industries that are trying to make up for what is going on in the world at the moment, there is one that is being affected in a pretty unique way. That industry would just so happen to be the entertainment industry and not so much the production side as the distribution side of the industry.
When the pandemic began and everything shut down, movie productions and movie theaters had shut down in accordance with regulations from the government. After a certain amount of time had passed, and new guidelines were created, businesses were able to reopen and movie production was able to once again resume. Unfortunately, it would still be a while before movie theaters felt comfortable enough to reopen and this time would be somewhere around the middle of August. Even after theaters managed to reopen to the public, it was quickly discovered that they would not be able to make money the way they initially planned due to the ongoing pandemic. Fears that people would contract the virus has led the general public to stay away from public businesses like theaters as much as possible.
With movie theaters pretty much taken out of the equation at this current point in time, studios have been looking for the best ways of releasing their upcoming films. The most common thing for them to do now is delay, but some films have already been delayed for a long time and the studios have to get them out there. So the other options available to them for the time being are for them to release the films theatrically and then get a digital release a few weeks later or release the film on both digital and in theaters simultaneously to maximize profits. Not many studios are going with these options, but it would appear that Warner Bros. is taking the leap and they will release their upcoming ‘Wonder Woman 1984‘ through both mediums. Those who wish to go and see the movie theatrically will now have their chance to get their tickets as they have gone up for pre-sale.
By George Robbins
This year has easily been one of the most tense and infuriating years that we have all had in quite some time as a worldwide society. Obviously there have been countless issues which have arisen over the years that are easily worse than what we are now forced to experience, but not in the same way. This year pretty much started of as a continuation of last year where everything pretty much remained the same and then it almost overnight, became a completely awful year for us all. The first few months of the year went on as they normally would and they didn’t bring too much with them with society rolling on. Then the middle of March struck and the pandemic had officially begun with everybody being forced to stay indoors unless they absolutely had to out somewhere.
Everywhere people looked, businesses were shut down, with the exception of businesses that were deemed absolutely essential to the continuation of society as a whole. This essentially meant that places that sold food, clothes, and water as well as other necessary essentials like gas, replacement parts, and toiletries were allowed to keep their doors open so that people would not have to go without supplies. With places like these still open, things were not as bad as people originally thought they were going to be, but the fact remained that we were stuck indoors at the start of a pandemic. Things were already looking grim from the onset and the limited facts that people were going on were not exactly forthcoming to the general public. This meant that people had no idea what was really going on and they could only end up listening and following government mandated orders.
The long incubation period and the subsequent quarantine periods meant that it was hard to track whether someone was sick until they started showing symptoms. On top of this, it was discovered that even asymptomatic patients could give the virus to others so we were given the rules to always wear our face masks and to distance ourselves from one another. This new rule of social distancing in order to prevent infection became a commonplace practice and this was what needed to be followed in all forms of business. Therefore, businesses were given guidelines for how they should open and how they would be allowed to remain open from that point forward. Mostly, this meant that only a limited number of people could be in a certain business at one time, they could only travel in one direction, and everyone had to wear masks.
For a couple of months following the start of the pandemic, no businesses were allowed to reopen because of fears that the number of cases would spike it they were open. Eventually, once the number of new cases started dropping, state governments as well as other governments around the world slowly allowed places to reopen to the public to their new limited capacity. This went against the views many people had because although the number of new cases was down, people inherently knew that the number of new cases would spike again once businesses reopened. Sure enough, this past summer saw a huge surge in new cases, but businesses did not shut down again, at least not many of them. We are once again at one of those points where things have gotten dangerous again though as a massive spike in cases has once again arisen.
There are many businesses that have managed to have decent reopenings even with the limited capacities they now have to deal with. Unfortunately, these reopenings were not handled the way that people expected them to and people being people didn’t listen to what they were told. As a direct result to this, the second wave that experts were waiting for has pretty much come back and talks about shutting things down again are taking place all over. There isn’t really all that much that can be done at this point though and, in an effort to keep more people from getting infected, this is something they simply have to do to keep people safe. This won’t stop some people from apparently putting themselves as well as others in harm’s way though because plenty of people are going about things like nothing is happening.
One of the most dangerous forms of allowing this to happen is by event organizers planning live events where people will be doing things in person. For most of this past year, any events that would have normally taken place in person have instead been taking place online or they have been delayed until such time where they can have the event safely. Now that there are talks of possible vaccines hitting the streets soon, people are becoming hopeful that this pandemic will end sooner rather than later and they can go back to living their lives the way they use to. The fact is that there is no guarantee that the vaccines will actually end up working in the end or if they will even affect everyone if they do work. Not only that, but if they do end up working, then how long will those vaccines last; we are in uncharted territory and it could still be some time before we know if this pandemic will be over for sure.
In the meantime we should still be careful like we have been with many events that would normally be held in-person being held online instead. Plenty of conventions and the like have been able to make this work since the pandemic began, so then why do the Academy Awards want to have an in-person event for next years award ceremony. The Academy Awards, better known as the Oscars, is a time of year for people to celebrate those in the movie industry who have happened to make incredible works of art. Whether it be actors, directors, production staff, etc., the Academy Awards honor those who have created something phenomenal that people have had the chance to enjoy on screen. While not the only award ceremony to give awards to people for their achievements in the industry, they are easily the most well-known among the populace.
This past year hasn’t really seen a lot of positive things happening within the movie industry, but that doesn’t mean that things have not happened over the year. People were not sure of just what movies would end up being allowed to be nominated for the Oscars because their usual rules disqualify movies which have not been in theaters at least once. Luckily, they have started allowing movies which have been streamed upon release instead of put into theaters given the fact that theaters are kind of having a difficult time right now. This year is the reason for a fair number of different rules being made in order to accommodate for the difficult situation the industry has found itself in. In fact, some were not even sure whether they were going to be having the Oscars this upcoming year or not.
As it would seem, not only are they having them, but they will be having them be in-person rather than livestreamed or by some other means. They announced a while back that they were going to delay the award ceremony until some time in April while allowing the entry deadline to go to some time in February rather than ending when the year ends. There is really no way of knowing just yet how they will actually be holding the awards ceremony with things the way that they are now while still being safe. Like already stated, even if the vaccines that are supposed to hit the streets soon work on the majority of the population, there is no way of knowing just what their effectiveness will be. The only way to find out for sure when it will be safe to hold the awards normally would be to wait a lot longer for good results to become public knowledge. As of now it would appear they are flying dark, so hopefully we hear more about this sooner rather than later.
By George Robbins
There have been plenty of movies that have released over the years which have been based on books that have been adapted for the big screen. More times than not, people end up complaining that the film adaptations of their favorite books don’t meet the expectations they had for the movie to begin with. This isn’t all that surprising though because movies cannot go into the same depth that novels can go into with their limited runtime. Novels are capable of going into every possible minute detail that the author wants to make available to the reader if it suits the purposes of their story. In order for authors to get people to experience their novels the way they want them to, they have to give details which describe exactly what is going on and what the scene looks like so readers can imagine it properly.
Novels are a medium that is difficult to understand by the general public because it is a medium where we have to interpret what the author is trying to tell from their story. Just what is meant with every single detail we have read in a novel needs to be interpreted by the reader in a way that the author’s meaning could not be misinterpreted. Unfortunately, this will never not be an issue because people have a habit of taking stories and twisting them how they want them to be for the sake of their own argument or imagination. However, there are also plenty of opportunities that have shown that people can correctly interpret what an author was going for in their novels and people can appreciate the work that went into putting those words on a page. Plenty of authors have managed to make this possible by writing out every detail of what they imagine would be important to their stories.
When an author writes a novel, they often times include as many details as necessary to get the scenes across in their novels since we can’t see these scenes directly play out in front of us. One of the most important things that an author needs to do to get people interested in their novels is to draw them in with scenes that people can play out in their heads in extravagant ways. Needless to say, there are reasons why fictional novels usually sell more copies than non-fictional stories since they can take people to entirely different worlds and give them a lot to imagine. That being said, their are plenty of non-fiction novels that people have fallen in love with over the years because they tell an interesting story about something that happened in our own world. It is harder to capture interest with non-fictional stories, but they are much easier for people to get used to.
If a person can read something in a novel which has happened in this world, they can much more easily adapt to this and put themselves in the shoes of the characters better. Still, while this may not be the worst type of story to be told in a movie format, the most common type of film to be made is obviously going to be a non-fiction movie. More times than not, those novels which have been adapted to the big screen ended up being fantasy or science fiction novels that have captured people’s imaginations over the years. The popularity of a novel can immediately make people think about ways that it can be adapted to the big screen, but it is not an easy discussion to be had in the end. If someone wants to make a live-action or animated version of a film, there are a lot of hoops that must be jumped through to make that a possibility.
When a movie is being considered for a chance to make its way to the big screen, there are a number of factors which must be considered before a movie can even be put into the works. This is done when they storyboard for a movie and they plan out just how that film would end up turning out without even really going into detail until later. Sometimes a film could get most of the way through and they realize that it just wouldn’t make much sense to make a movie out of a certain novel. Other movies can get past this stage and they can begin working on a script that will fit the movie while also trying to adhere closely to the story of the novel. If the story of the novel cannot be adapted as well as they originally thought, they will either scrap the movie in storyboarding or they’ll make an entirely new movie with the same name.
Obviously, people are not going to like the fact that a favorite book of theirs was taken and changed in order to adapt it to the big screen so that a studio could go on and try to make money off of it. Usually, the movies that end up doing this end up failing in theaters and it ends up coming off as a surprise that people didn’t like it that much. Movies that do try to closely adhere to the original story can only end up doing so much to try and stay on track though. As stated already, books are the perfect place for an author to give all of the details they feel are necessary to make the story feel even more real. Obviously a lot of these minute details cannot be adapted to the big screen in a way that can get the audience to understand why they are there to begin with. Also a lot of details are given to set up the scene whereas in a movie, the scene can very easily be seen on screen.
While not having all of the details from their novel counterparts, people immediately become disappointed that the reasons for certain things happening on screen were never explained properly like in the novels. Inversely, the exact opposite can end up happening and a single novel can end up being turned into a couple of different movies instead of just a single movie. Much of this comes from books that filmmakers believe would not be able to show off everything that happened in the book or they felt there should be more to the story. The latter is what ended up happening with the ‘Hobbit’ trilogy of films as they were adapted from a single book by author J.R.R. Tolkien. The end result of the whole affair with the ‘Hobbit‘ films was that they ended up being much more inferior to the ‘Lord of the Rings‘ trilogy that came before them.
The original novels written by fiction writer J.R.R. Tolkien are widely regarded as some of the most incredible high fantasy novels to have ever existed. Tolkien had done something that almost no other author had been able to do and he handcrafted an entire universe which he wrote out on paper with incredible stories that people have fallen in love with over the years. He wrote countless novels all based within the same universe that went into incredible depth to explain exactly how that world came to be and what was happening in that world. Among those novels were a certain trilogy known as the ‘Lord of the Rings’ Trilogy which told a very specific story about a group of heroes doing what they could to save the world. What would follow was a long period of time where studios were trying to get their hands on the rights to make movies based on the novels.
The studio that would eventually end up getting the rights to work on the movie was Warner Bros. who would wait until a time where they knew they would be able to make the movie properly. While they were figuring these things out, they had to decide who would end up taking up the helm when they started working on the movies. That lucky soul ended up being director Peter Jackson who had taken those famous novels and adapted them in such a way that those movies are now considered among the best fantasy films to ever exist. Jackson easily created a set of films that became beloved not only by fans of the original novels, but also the general public at large. He made his vision of those films become reality on the big screen and people fell in love with all of the work that went into the making of the films.
The wild success of the ‘Lord of the Rings’ movies gave the idea to the studio that they could definitely continue to make movies based out of that universe. After all, Tolkien created such an incredibly diverse universe that they had a ton of additional content to play off of if they wanted to make a future film. The only issue presented to them was that there was not really a story left to tell after ‘Return of the King‘ and thus they had to go back in time. For those that didn’t know that there was another novel that served as a prequel but had seen the trilogy, they were given a jump-in point near the start of the first film. They explain at the start of the first film and at the end of the third that Frodo’s father figure and family, Bilbo, was an adventurer that was a part of a big adventure of his own when he was younger.
Bilbo’s story was the story of ‘The Hobbit’ which was mentioned as being the basis for the story “There and Back Again” in-universe. This journey was one that saw Bilbo going on a journey with a group of dwarves so that they may finally find their way back to their kingdom which was taken over by a dragon. The original novel, as already stated, was originally just one novel that told Bilbo’s story, but this did not fit well with the version of the film that Jackson wanted to adapt. Thus, he decided that he was going to turn the novel into an entire trilogy which would have shown off his vision of the novel’s story to the world. In the end, the prequel trilogy ended up being considered simply inferior to the original ‘Lord of the Rings’ trilogy that people loved.
We now know that the reason as to why the films probably turned out the way that they did was because Peter Jackson was not able to make the movies that he originally wanted to make. This could have easily affected the work because it made it difficult for Jackson to make something that he would be proud of making. According to actor Jed Brophy, who played dwarf Nori, Warner Bros. interfered with the prequel trilogy while it was under production which led to Jackson not being able to do the things that he wanted to with the film. It isn’t all that surprising that the studio ended up interfering with the production since it was such an important property to be adapting to the big screen. However, they shouldn’t have done that since they already knew that Jackson would have done a good job with directing the film from how he handled the original films.
This is not the first time that Warner has done this as they have been pointed at recently by a number of different directors who have said they have interfered with productions they were working on. Director David Ayer has been doing his best to make this apparent to the general public as of late with information that Warner was responsible for how ‘Suicide Squad’ ended up turning out. Apparently Ayer was only able to put one part into the final version of the film while everything else was left out or changed by the studio. While it hasn’t been stated exactly what was interfered with in the ‘Hobbit’ movies, it can be assumed that it was a fair bit of the films that ended up being dictated by the studio. This would mean that most of the film would really be worked on by the studio and not the director they chose to be in charge of the films.
Jed Brophy admitted recently that the studio did not allow Jackson the freedom to do what he wanted with the film which led to him not being able to really change things on the fly. He said that when Jackson worked on the ‘Lord of the Rings’ movies, he was able to shoot a scene and then think about how he wanted to work on the next scene to make it all flow together. Unfortunately, he was not afforded the same opportunity when he did the ‘Hobbit’ movies as the studio had a much more set schedule that they did not want to deviate from and they wanted it all done as quickly as possible. There is no telling if the movies would have really ended up better if Jackson was able to do things the way he wanted to, but it still would have been much more interesting to see. What’s done is done though so we can only imagine at this point how differently the movie would have turned out.
By George Robbins
The Jurassic Park franchise is easily on of the most successful series of films to have ever existed and whether people admit it or not, the box office numbers don’t lie. Not every movie in the franchise has been loved over the years, but they all have their part to play in the overall narrative, at least to some degree. That said, the third movie ‘Jurassic Park 3,’ did not really serve any purpose in the overall narrative of the original trilogy, so people did not like the film as much as the first two in the series. What would end up following years later was the ‘Jurassic World‘ movie which not only continued the story of the original movies, but further expanded upon it. The movie showed us a modern society where dinosaurs were actually a reality and gave us a lot to fantasize about after the film ended.
The plots of the most recent entries, ‘Jurassic World’ and its sequel, focused heavily on the production of hybrid dinosaurs and how they would interact once introduced to the park and its ecosystem. Also it focused on the reason why they felt that the hybrid dinosaurs were considered necessary because of lack of enthusiasm from the public. The sad truth explored in the films was that the majestic creatures we always fantasized about living alongside would become nothing special to us after a while and we would get bored. They realized that hybrids weren’t so important to the story though, and it was confirmed that the third and final film in the new trilogy, ‘Jurassic World: Dominion,’ will not have hybrids in it. Instead it will focus more on what the original trilogy touched on.
In the original trilogy, it was brought up what it would mean for the world if dinosaurs were let out to the public and allowed to live in the world like any other animal. By the end of the most recent film in the series, all of the surviving dinosaurs were let loose into the wild where they decided to all split off and go to various locations all over the world. This means that the upcoming film will touch on how this ends up changing the world and what the consequences of dinosaurs in the modern world would be. As it would seem, this is not the only thing that will be touched on in the film according to Jeff Goldblum who has said that the story was actually changed to adapt to the pandemic and how it has affected the world. This means that we will end up with a movie that resonates more with us than we originally thought it would.
We weren’t sure just how the movie would be affected by the pandemic because of every other production being shut down, but it turns out it wasn’t that serious. They were able to get work done on the movie despite the fact that the physical production was shut down because they were able to do CGI work from home. This gave them the perfect opportunity to look over the script of the film and see how they could change things to make them better before the film’s release. Apparently, they took that opportunity to adjust the movie to include aspects of the Covid pandemic that would fit into the movie. Considering the fact that movies are a representation of the way the world is and the Jurassic Park movies have always looked into how humans fit into the world’s ecosystem, this all just seems fitting for the upcoming final film in the series.
By George Robbins
The pandemic has been a huge drain on everyone and it has especially been rough on the economy as a whole which has been suffering ever since it began. There is a lot wrong with the economy right now and some specific industries are currently suffering more than others. Fortunately, they have managed to make due by using other means to make up for their current predicament. The most unfortunate aspect of the industry at the moment is the fact that they cannot release movies the same way that they normally would. Normally, studios would release movies through movie theaters which would have exclusivity rights to films for a set amount of time before releasing to the public for purchase.
Ever since the pandemic began, movie theaters have had nothing but trouble with trying to get business back on track. The biggest issue that many of them are facing is the fact that they can’t attract people back because of the risk that is involved with doing so. The simple fact of the matter is that people are justifiably scared to go out to theaters because of the risk of getting infected with the virus. They have tried to assuage people’s fears by stating the fact that they have changed their guidelines to be much more safety conscious. Despite this fact, people don’t want to take the risk when they have already gotten used to watching movies from the safety and comfort of their own homes.
Of course, studios want to have their movies go to theaters before they release them on digital and DVD, but the fact of the matter is that this isn’t readily possible. If there is no one going out to see movies, what chance do they have to actually get to have people go out and see their movies. The market for movies was not great from the start of the pandemic because people were so used to going out to see movies in theaters. However, people have now spent enough time indoors that they have instead changed their viewpoints so that they now think the opposite of how they originally thought. Now, they are much more comfortable with staying in to watch new movies rather than going out to theaters where they could end up getting sick.
Although they don’t necessarily want to give up on having their movies release in theaters because it is another source of revenue that they don’t want to give up on, they have to compromise somehow. For those wondering just how bad the market is right now, it is very easy to go back and look at the ‘Tenet‘ situation that made things the way they are now. Back in August, theaters were just beginning to resume normal activity, meaning that they reopened their doors to the public when they needed new movies to show to the public. At the time of reopening, they had no new movies to really show to the public that people were looking forward to. In came ‘Tenet’ which was the new Christopher Nolan blockbuster that people were curious about for the longest time and it needed a release date of some kind.
Originally supposed to release in July, ‘Tenet’ had its release date pushed back a couple of times and finally it was given a release date. Things were actually so bad at the time that the movie released internationally first before releasing domestically one week later. So by the end of August and beginning of September, ‘Tenet’ was finally able to make its way into theaters where it had a relatively strong opening to the public. Given the state the world is in and the fact that theaters have to function on limited capacity, there was much less money made the first week which was what they really expected. This showed that there could, in fact, be a market for movie releases, but this was unfortunately not meant to last as they immediately realized the following few weeks. By the movie’s third week of release, the box office income had dropped tremendously and the market for the film was essentially dead domestically.
Warner Bros. was the studio responsible for putting out the film and they are all too well aware of the situation they were put into by the film’s lackluster release. They became the pariah studio in this case as they were the ones that made other studios realize that the movie market is pretty much non-existent at this point in time. Every other studio proceeded to move their films out of this year’s line-up almost entirely with only a few films being a part of the exception. Even then, they are having tremendously different releases from how they would normally do things and it is still heavily affecting the movie theater market. As of now they either push their films, release them in theaters and get them out a few weeks later on digital, or they release them on both platforms simultaneously.
The last two options were pretty much unheard of before the pandemic began, but unfortunately the practice had to come into being so that studios aren’t sitting on all of their films for over a year. The last option is one that is considered the most controversial because it most definitely messes with theaters who are already struggling as it is. At least with option number two they can make money with a 17 day exclusivity deal, even if it isn’t a lot. For some studios, especially Warner, this seems to not be a very viable option because they are already hurting due to the previously stated issue. The third option is the one that Warner now seems like they will be going with for some of their films. In an unseen turn of events, they even changed the release plans of their ‘Wonder Woman 1984’ movie.
The movie was originally meant to release in theaters on December 25th where it would remain exclusive for the agreed upon 17 days with theaters before releasing on digital. They have since changed those plans and they will now be releasing the movie simultaneously on both digital and in theaters on the 25th. While certainly not what theaters were expecting, it is a move that some people are seeing as a change in the way theaters function moving forward and how they interact with studios. They will be releasing the movie on both their HBO Max streaming service as well as in theaters to try and drive traffic to both. While this may not be what they were expecting from this whole situation, it is the decision that they finally came to.
This may not be the last time that they end up doing this though as it would appear that they are talking about doing this with the upcoming ‘Tom & Jerry’ live-action film. This movie is going to be a sort of reboot for the characters and therefore, it is a big movie release that we will be seeing unfold. The movie will see the two characters retaining their cartoon appearances in the real world instead of trying to make them appear more life-like. This is a decision that a lot of people are hopeful for because it means that they will get a movie that plays heavily off of the original cartoon that they loved growing up. Needless to say, this is another release that means something to the Warner Bros. studio and they want to handle it with just as much care as any of their other films.
If things end up working out with the release of ‘Wonder Woman 1984,’ then we could see the same exact thing happening with the upcoming ‘Tom & Jerry’ movie. No one was quite sure of when the movie would be ready for release, but it would now appear that they have a date in mind and that date is some time in May of 2021. The idea is to have the movie release on both HBO Max and in theaters like Wonder Woman, but if things don’t work out with that, they will have to come up with another plan of action. Unfortunately, this means that Warner will once again be the sacrificial lamb that will be checking to see if something works the way they hope it will. These upcoming few months will be a strong determinant for them as they try to make their decisions moving forward.
Warner Bros. has really been trying to put their best foot forward with everything that has happened thus far and even though it is still dangerous, they are trying different tactics. In order to try and come up with the perfect form of release that could work for them, they are trying everything they can with various methods. On top of trying to come up with better release methods, they are trying to drive traffic towards their other revenue stream, HBO Max. They are trying to get as many new subscribers as they can, but things are not working out as intended with not a lot of people wanting to sign up for the service. Hopefully the releases of their upcoming movies work out for them or else they will have hemorrhaged money for nothing.
Get Some Strange!
