By George Robbins
Disney is easily one of the largest companies worldwide and probably takes the top spot for the largest entertainment business there is in the world. They have there hands in just about everything that is related to the entertainment industry which has given them the ability to gather large crowds of fans over the years. Starting as just a small animation company, Disney became popular because of the extremely detailed work that they put into making their animated movies. What most people may not even know is that the company almost ended up going under when they just started. If not for Walt Disney not giving up and putting all of him money and property on the line, then they never would have finished their first film, ‘Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs.’
After the release and smash success of their first film release, they were able to expand upon the foundations which were now laid out and Disney was able to expand. Next, we saw the creation of countless films which would make the Disney company capable of taking on larger projects and building up a fan base that would continue to last for many years. With the continued success that their animations brought in, Walt Disney decided to open up a theme park in order to play off of the popularity of the animations. This is how we ended up with the inception of Disneyland in Anaheim, California and eventually, the building of the massive multi-park location known as Disney World. While initially not that huge, both locations have built themselves up tremendously over the years while staying up to date.
Not only did they create a Disney Parks division, but they continued to put out stunning films that have managed to create a bunch of different generations of fans. They built up their fan base and then sold them on going to their Parks which would further play on what they loved about the films they had seen. This tradition has continued even today and is responsible for bringing in a countless number of people in an effort to keep getting bigger as a company. Obviously this tactic worked wonders because they eventually managed to become one of the largest entertainment companies in the world. Although they had rocky beginnings, they were able to spend many years creating something that other companies have been trying to do for years.
There was a reason why the “Happiest Place on Earth” and the “Most Magical Place on Earth”(Disneyland and Disney World respectively) were given those nicknames in the first place. The overall purpose of the parks was to make people feel comfortable in the parks and be happy with everything they find in the parks. In truth, this was widely considered to be an accepted fact that people were usually just happier in general while they were in the parks. While this continued to be the case over the years, it started dawning on the parks that customers were losing satisfaction more quickly than before and expectations have changed from customers as time has gone on. Now, customers expect to get what they see online from the Parks and it has hindered customer happiness over the past couple of years.
Despite the lack of overall happiness that people experience in the parks, the fact remained that people still like going to the Parks because it has still brought them overall happiness over the years. The enemy of progress is nostalgia, and in this case, it is also the enemy of true happiness as people only go because of the nostalgia they get from seeing their favorite things before their eyes from their childhoods. If people wanted to be happy with where they go on vacation it should be a place that they have always wanted to go and they should plan it properly. Instead, many will continue going to the Parks because they grew up loving the content showed off in the parks growing up. When they capture a child’s attention with their films, they create fans for life and that has worked well for them over the years.
This has always been their method of making the most amount of money over the years and it has allowed them to renovate and expand on a number of occasions to always keep things fresh for guests both new and old. Regardless of when a person and their family members may go to the parks, they can find some kind of happiness in the parks, especially if other people around them feel the same way. As of late, they have not been able to bring anybody in because of the Covid-19 pandemic shutting down pretty much every facet of all of the Parks. With that currently happening, Disney Parks division has been suffering tremendously and have been trying their best to reopen to some degree, but it is just too risky at the moment. There is no telling when they will actually be able to reopen to any degree in the future, but with things the way they are now, we shouldn’t expect it to be any time soon.
When the pandemic began back in the middle of March earlier this year, all Disney Parks worldwide had been shut down like every other business. In an effort to keep as many people as possible from getting infected, non-essential businesses like entertainment businesses and, subsequently, theme parks closed their doors and gates to the public. This was to be expected because the theme parks are easily one of the largest factors in someone getting infected. After all, it is a massive location with countless people all huddled together or stuck in line together for hours at a time. Since the danger was ever so clear, they knew immediately that amusement parks would be among the last businesses which would get to reopen to the public at large.
Everyone knew that the pandemic was not going to be over any time soon, but people were hopeful about businesses being able to reopen to the public once again in the near future. Unfortunately, this would be a much harder feat to pull off than initially anticipated because the pandemic has gotten worse as time has gone on. Eventually, the Disney Parks division was able to reopen to the public once again in Hong Kong and Florida, but they have been very rocky re-openings at best. Just like every other business, they had to wait their turn to reopen as it was based upon the local governments as well as the overall number of new cases reported. Thus, they have reached a point where they can’t even reopen in certain locations because things are still far too dangerous.
The Disney Parks division was trying their best to reopen Disneyland in California back in July but this became a bit of an impossible task due to a rampant wave of infection. Back over the summer, their was a massive surge in newly reported virus cases and because of this, some governments started shutting some businesses down again. Even if they didn’t shut down some businesses, the governments would make it even more difficult for those that were opened to stay open. This is why Disneyland was not able to make its reopening when they originally planned for it and now they have reached a tipping point that will be hard to come back from. In California, for them to have even been able to reopen, there were set guidelines created by the Government of California which had to be met before parks like that were able to open again.
The new guidelines put in place by the state government were seen as being unfair by the Disney Parks division because they made it so that a certain threshold of new cases had to be under a certain amount before places like that could reopen. This wouldn’t be seen as too terrible by some companies if not for the fact that the State of California is very strict about the number of new cases and the threshold it would take for certain businesses to reopen to the public. They have to have an extremely low number of new cases before they are actually allowed to reopen to the public which has led to many companies getting upset that they are being so strict. Fortunately, this has paid off a bit because we are now facing another massive wave of the virus and it would be too dangerous if they reopened anyway, so they would have had to shut down again anyway.
With the initial fact that they could not open they made the decision to lay off a total of 28,000 employees who they could not afford to continue paying as they already lost billions this year. With so much money being lost, it was a surprise that it took as long as it did before they finally laid off their employees. Unfortunately, nothing else could have been done and they were already catching flak because they allowed employees that tested positive to go back to work in the Parks that were open. As an employer, they have the duty to keep both their customers and employees safe so in terms of safety this was a good reason to lay them off as well. It would seem that they did not do enough though because they are now talking about laying off another 4,000 employees early next year.
The ongoing closures and loss in revenue is the reason as to why the company has made the announcement of the next round of layoffs. Layoffs will be primarily in the Disney Parks, Experiences, and Products divisions of the company and there is no feasible way for them to keep their employees on. This is an unfortunate side effect of the current pandemic but there is nothing that can really be done in the meantime as they are still losing a lot of revenue overall. Disney is easily one of the largest companies out there which has both its advantages and its disadvantages. The advantages are mostly based around the fact that Disney now owns a large number of intellectual properties that are easily recognized by people all over. The disadvantages are the incredible cost that is incurred by the fact that they are no longer functioning at full capacity.
Disney now owns so many streams of revenue that it is easy to forget that if one of them fails, then they are going to have a hard time getting enough money elsewhere to cover it. This pandemic has been a huge pain for everyone, especially since people are now losing their jobs because of it and this isn’t bound to get better as time goes on. Hopefully, the vaccines being developed will work the way people are hoping for, but this just may not end up being the case which means the pandemic will be going on for a long time still. As such, companies are going to be having a hard time making up for lost revenue especially if things continue getting worse as predicted. Disney is a pretty good example now of how the pandemic can definitely affect larger companies.
While the Parks division may not be the most profitable of their revenue streams, it is easily one of the most important and this is seen as a bad sign. Not only is Disney losing money from that source of revenue, but they are also losing money because they cannot properly release their new films. With theaters the way they are now, it is no surprise that they would have a hard time getting their films out there. It is because of this that they pushed back the release dates of a vast majority of their films and they won’t see release dates any time soon. All of this has gone to show that even the biggest corporations out there and the people working for them are all being affected heavily by this pandemic. Hopefully things will not stay this way for much longer, but we have no way of knowing this for sure.
By George Robbins
This upcoming year is going to be a big one for movies, even if a large majority of them don’t even end up releasing because of all of the upcoming projects. There are many movies that have unfortunately been pushed back into next year or even 2022 because of this pandemic and the fear that movie theaters won’t be able to drum up customers. Those two things go hand-in-hand and it is not so much of a surprise to see that most studios are trying their best to get their films to release to large crowds. That is pretty much the goal of any studio; to get people to go out, or at least want to go out, to see a new movie of theirs especially if it is a bigger film that a lot of effort and money went into. If there are no people going out to movie theaters then why would they even bother with trying to release to theaters, especially with their bigger films.
As of now, most studios have about three options on the table: release anyway and then release digitally after a few weeks, release their film digitally, or wait for a better release window where movie theaters may be able to get more business. Obviously the third option is the best option, but it is the option that would take the longest for them to do successfully because of the implications behind it. Those implications mainly being that studios kind of need money to function and they are losing money by not releasing any of their films waiting for something that may not come for a long time yet. In the meantime, they have yet to actually stop any future productions because there would be no point in doing so since having more movies in their catalog works out for them in the long run. The start of the next year is going to be a strong one as many movies are going to be starting up production.
Among the movies that will be starting filming in early 2021 is one ‘Thor: Love and Thunder‘ which is going to be the fourth entry for the Thor series of Marvel Cinematic Universe films. The movie is meant to start filming in January with some actors and crew even showing up for filming in Australia already. A recent set of photos of director Taika Waititi and actor Idris Elba has sparked a big online conversation now that discusses the possibility of Elba’s character Heimdall returning to the series in some way. As many well know, Heimdall was killed by Thanos at the start of the ‘Infinity War’ movie and thus, we expected him to have completely been put out of the series. However, these new photos have many fans clamoring for news in regards to this meeting because it could end up meaning the return of the character. While it may have been a small role, Elba had a role that many people loved and felt was important to Thor’s stories so they are hopeful for his return even if it is a small bit.
By George Robbins
Many franchises hold a place in the hearts of movies fans everywhere for some reason or another and among those franchises are some that manage to worm their way into people’s hearts in the weirdest ways. A surprise to no one, some people are just into watching different things, even if there are reasons why people didn’t like the movie to begin with. In fact, it is due to this strange love for certain films that people sometimes go back to see what other people were talking about and end up liking the film after a re-watch. Thus, cult classic films became a thing for this very reason and have become wildly popular over the years, bringing in a lot of people who originally turned their heads to these types of films. Most notably among those types of films were the horror genre films which drove many people away from theaters instead of bringing them in.
Despite the wide variety of issues that people have with going out to see horror movies of all types, the fact remains that there is a dedicated crowd who are willing to go out and see these films. This drive is what eventually led more people to go out to theaters to see what others were talking about and therefore created new horror movie fans. This is easily how an entire generation of horror movie fans was created because originally, horror movies found it hard to make a spot for themselves among other movies. There were a lot of horror movies which ended up releasing in the 70’s and 80’s and for the longest time, they couldn’t find a way to draw people in to see those movies. This is where it came in handy to have people come in after some time had passed because it brought interest back to the genre.
Of course, there have been some notable exceptions to horror movies where the movie immediately gained critical acclaim, but most movies in the genre were not so fortunate in the end. Over time people would start to flock to the genre because there were many interesting movies to be made with horror as a base component. Eventually, we got hybrid movies which combined the adrenaline inducing horror with things like action thrown into the mix to spice the film up a bit. With the hybridization of movies in this way, they have had no choice but to try and one up themselves with every sequel that would follow. Most of the time this would end up not working out because movies that constantly tried to one-up themselves eventually collapsed under their own weight.
The most notable horror film to have strong action elements was the ‘Predator‘ movie which released back in 1987 and introduced the world to a different type of film. This film did something that no one expected and that was the fact that the movie was a combination of a few different genres which ended up meshing together to make something great. At first glance, people only saw it as another action film which may have had some kinds of twist added to it. Since the main premise of the film is set in a jungle with a group of deadly commandos, no one expected to see aliens making an appearance in the movie. This is what we ended up with though because that was the plan; to lull people into wanting to watch a crazy action film, but it ended up a crazy hybrid film.
The movie starts with a group of commandos pretty much wiping out a group of insurgents with very minimal effort on their part and finding a woman that they must escort out of the jungle. What followed was something that nobody would have expected if not for the promotional material and that was that the script was flipped. Normally, people would have expected a type of ‘Rambo’ film where the commandos would tactically hunt their targets in the jungle, but this is far from the end result we got. Instead, the commandos were the ones being hunted after taking out all of their former enemies within the first few minutes of the film. This created an epic game of cat and mouse that people very quickly flocked to theaters to see. After all, seeing a group of big dangerous commandos go from predators to prey was something that completely changed what people expected from an action film.
The first movie culminated with the main chracter “Dutch,” portrayed by Arnold Schwarzenegger, coming face to face with the creature that had hunted down the rest of his crew. All throughout the film, hints were given that the creature was nothing of this world and that the final battle would end up being a spectacle because it was unknown how they could beat such a being. Between the insane physical differences and the highly advanced weaponry, the characters in the movie had no real way of fighting the titular Predator the way they normally would. It ended up taking the main character using guerilla tactics as well as other tricks to be able to finally bring the alien menace down. Unfortunately, the remaining members of his group were not fortunate enough to make it out with their lives and only he and the woman survived.
The first movie did an unbelievable job at blending both action and horror because it had people guessing when the next person would end up dying and in what way. It also had people wondering whether the characters would even end up making it out of the jungle at all and they made this an even bigger question at the climax when the alien almost blew up the main character. Now this was a film that certainly caught people’s attention and got them interested so, of course, they did not stop after one movie. They would go on to create the aptly named ‘Predator 2‘ which ended up releasing in 1990 and this time it was a bit closer to home. Unlike the previous movie which took place in a jungle in Central America, the sequel took place in the urban jungle of Los Angeles.
With the release of the second film, the filmmakers were able to give more personality to the titular Predators as a race and expand upon what makes them so terrifying. Unlike the last movie where it was just one group of men being hunted, this time saw gangs all across L.A. being wiped out by the alien hunter. On top of this, government agents who know about the alien’s existence have arrived in the city trying to capture it as a means to study it in some way and prevent it from doing what the other one did in Central America. Lieutenant Michael R. Harrigan, played by Donald Glover, is the person that the Predator holds the most interest in this time around as it witnessed his acts of heroism during the gang wars. It was because of this acknowledgement and some of the actions of the Predator that we discovered that they were not what we actually expected them to be.
By the end of the movie, we discovered that the race that the Predators were from has been hunting people on Earth for years dating back centuries. After their hunts, they would collect trophies to tout as their proof that they had taken down a worthy opponent and that they have earned their place among their people as great warriors. Not only that, but we learned that they will only attack those that they recognize as a threat or a worthy foe and they will not kill innocents. On top of this, they will not kill pregnant women because it would go against the rules of their hunt and it would be incredibly dishonorable for them to do. By the end of the movie, there was a ton of lore which had been added to the backstory of the Predators and that lore is widely accepted by fans over the years.
What followed after what many considered the hay day of the Predator movies was a long drought where we saw no new films about the now iconic aliens. In truth, the films only really just made back the money that was put into them, but the fact remained that there was a very dedicated fanbase which wanted to keep watching films with the aliens in them. Thus, in 2004 we ended up getting the crossover film ‘Alien vs. Predator’ which combined the two beloved alien franchises after a throwaway Easter egg in ‘Predator 2’ showed a xenomorph from the Alien franchise. While the movie may not have been as loved the films that came before, people were still kind of excited to see the match-up happen in the end. There would go on to be another sequel for AvP which was much less loved by people than the film that came before which led to a lot of disappointed fans.
What came next was something many people did not expect which was a direct sequel to the original films which released in 2010 which instead took the dangerous humans and brought them to the Predator hunting grounds. This is where we were introduced to a variety of Predators and we got to see how they functioned among their own kind through the eyes of humans being hunted by them on their own hunting world. The film wasn’t as great as the originals but it was something, but what followed with the 2018 film was just considered horrid by fans because it added way too much. Everything about the 2018 film just ended up feeling “off” in the end and so it is no surprise that fans did not like the movie in the end. However, it would appear that director Dan Trachtenberg’s upcoming Predator movie will not have anything to do with the 2018 film and it will instead be a reboot. Here is to hoping that the film turns out like fans hope it does and we get a good Predator film again.
By George Robbins
There are a lot of franchises out there nowadays trying their best to grab the attention of people of all ages by appealing to the things they like. Perhaps one of the most unique franchises out there right now is the Star Wars franchise which has become wildly successful since the release of the original film in 1977. Directed by George Lucas, the original ‘Star Wars‘ was a film that had never really been done before and this was heavily reflected in the vast popularity of the movie both on release and post-release. It has been noted on a number of occasions that no one is really sure why the movie has become so popular as time has gone on. Even George Lucas thought that the movie would end up being a failure, but this turned out to be the exact opposite of how things would end up turning out in the end.
The unprecedented success of the first film made it easy for them to eventually come out with ‘The Empire Strikes Back‘ which would soon be followed by ‘Return of the Jedi.’ What many people found interesting about the movies was not the actual stories of the films so much as the universe that the stories take place in. There are plenty of people that like the movies because of the stories, but that is far from the only thing that people like it for. In the end, it was the expansive universe that ended up drawing people in and got them involved in the lore of the movies and how they have continued to be so involved with the films as time has gone on. The universe that all of the Star Wars content is set in gave rise to countless stories over the years that fans have fallen in love with and it has become obvious that few sci-fi stories could be told the same way today.
There are plenty of science fiction universes out there that have expansive stories involved with them, but Star Wars has succeeded in getting people invested because of the premise. The story focuses entirely on a separate galaxy from the one that we reside in and the stories are set thousands of years in the past which has given food for thought to countless people over the years. It is a setting that has allowed people to weave their own intricate narratives that may not even have anything to do with the stories from the films, but they have become wildly popular with people over the years. Over time, the number of stories being written about the Star Wars universe had managed to reach a point where things started getting out of hand for the most part. People began wondering just what was being made canon in the Star Wars universe to begin with and what was just fan-fiction.
Some of the fan written stories have been regarded as perhaps some of the best Star Wars content out there that was available to the general public. Unfortunately, it would be awhile before any official word was released which gave people an idea as to what was going to be considered official Star Wars canon. When Disney bought out Lucasfilm, they made it official as to what would be considered canon in the Star Wars universe, and to no one’s surprise, pretty much all of the fan-fiction was considered non-canon. Luckily, most new Star Wars content these days is considered to be a part of the Star Wars canon because the people working on that content need permission from Disney before they can make it. This is how we ended up with all of the new content being put out becoming important to the universe that people know and love.
There was debate as to what would end up becoming canon to the Star Wars universe after Disney made their announcement, but to make things easier to follow, they released the Star Wars books, shows, and games which would be considered canon in their new continuity. This would easily allow long time fans to follow along with what is now happening in the Star Wars universe while also making it possible for people to be on the lookout for new canon-approved content. Even the stories that were not really considered canon have been recognized as being very good stories to be told in the universe. No matter how we look at how some content is handled canon-wise, the fact remains that it is still a universe that a lot of people are in love with. This has allowed the franchise to continue, and even expand, at this point because they continue to draw in new crowds to see and experience the new stuff they put out there.
After Disney took over the rights for the Star Wars franchise, they immediately announced their plans to begin work on new movies and other content. They would then allow the shows that were already out to continue and made them a part of the canon which is how the cartoons tie into the whole franchise. Often times, the side stories and other content available for the wider story in the universe show what happens between or before the mainline movies with ties to various other forms of media. Making new mainline movies was not the only original goal in the minds of people working at Disney because they would eventually announce that they would be making side story films. The idea behind those films was to release a side story about characters in the universe that happened before or between timelines from the movies.
Unfortunately, that plan ended up going out the window after the release of the second side story film and thus the plans for future films was scrapped in the end. On the brighter side of things, they would still come up with plans to make shows that are based the same way that the movies were supposed to be. The most profound instance of this just so happens to be one of their most popular IP’s right now which is ‘The Mandalorian.’ The show focuses on a bounty hunter in the Star Wars universe who takes on a variety of jobs to continue living as he wants. Of course, he is the titular Mandalorian and people in the show recognize him as such which is something that many hardcore fans have been looking forward to. The show turned out to be far different from what people were originally thinking though, so people were obviously surprised by the outcome.
Many people were hoping that the planned film would be a story which focused on the story of the bounty hunter Boba Fett who had become iconic to many people over the years. Yet again, this is another situation that no one expected to see because he had such a small role in the original movies and a mention in the prequel trilogy. Regardless, people began considering him to be one of the greatest bounty hunters in the Star Wars universe and they wanted to see a story which centers on him at some point. There was content which released over the years which explained what happened to him after his fall into the Sarlacc Pit in ‘Return of the Jedi.’ Everyone had assumed him to be dead after that, but the truth, as it turns out, was that he did not die after falling in and he instead managed to survive in the beast’s stomach before eventually escaping.
With that backstory available to Disney, people were hoping that this would be the direction they would take things when they announced their plans for a ‘Mandalorian’ movie a while back. Unfortunately, there was not enough buzz going around with the Han Solo story that they released and therefore they considered the side story stuff to be a failure. Next, they would announce that it would instead be a new show that would premiere on their Disney+ streaming service with the focus being on a new character. The show is meant to be a canon story which is actually set between the original trilogy and the sequel trilogy timelines as a means of setting up various storylines that could happen between the many years seen between movies. It is because of the vast possibilities that we can now see various characters from earlier in the series’ timeline returning despite everything we thought may have happened to them.
Most recently, we have seen this in action with the return of one Ahsoka Tano to the series for the first time since her role in the Clone Wars story arc. Star Wars ‘The Clone Wars’ was easily one of the most popular Star Wars shows out there and it set a pretty high standard for Star Wars shows moving forward. While it may have been a cartoon, it has been regarded as one of the best cartoons that has ever been made because of both the animation and the story told throughout the show. The setting of the show actually takes place between the second and third prequel film and shows exactly what happened during the titular Clone Wars which saw its conclusion in the third Prequel film. There was a lot of time in-between those two movies that had to be accounted for and they did just that when they released the show.
The ‘Clone Wars’ show was played out until they reached the point where the two timelines ended up matching up with one another and then we knew the result with the ‘Revenge of the Sith’ movie. That would not be the only well-regarded movie though, because as it would turn out, they would also go on to make a Star Wars ‘Rebels’ show which shows what happened five years before the start of the original ‘Star Wars’ film. It followed the Galactic Empire who were hunting down the last of the Jedi while also showing how the rebellion first started taking form. This was the last time in Star Wars canon that people were able to see Ahsoka Tano as a part of the overall Star Wars universe, until now that is. She made her return in ‘The Mandalorian’s’ “Chapter 13: The Jedi” which finally gave the character her first live-action appearance. Before then, she had only really been seen in the aforementioned cartoons, hiding away from the Empire while assisting where she could.
In the cartoons, she began as Anakin Skywalker’s apprentice who eventually had to hide from her former friends and allies after they started eliminating Jedi. By the time of ‘Rebels,’ it was shown that she had aged a lot due to the passing of time and this became most apparent with her head tails. As many fans have made note of, Ahsoka’s race have the tails on their heads get longer as they get older and they are a sign of a mature member of her race. This means that by the time of the ‘Mandalorian’ show, they should have been even longer, but they ended up being almost as short as they were in the original ‘Clone Wars’ cartoon. Fans, being Star Wars fans, immediately started questioning the reason for why the character, played by Rosario Dawson, was portrayed this way on screen. In response to the questions being asked, character designer Brian Matyas immediately responded to the question on his Twitter page.
The simple answer that pretty much answers everyone’s questions is that it was easier for the actor if the tails were shorter because movement had to be factored in. Matyas said that he played around with many different kinds of designs which could possibly translate from the animations to live-action, but this was the best option. Sometimes, there needs to be a compromise so that characters and objects that people loved could be introduced back into the story in some way. In this case, the compromise was a slightly different design for the character for the sake of range of movement so that the acting can be much more natural. Being able to move and do stunts properly is much better in the end than a bad performance because of a slight appearance difference. Hopefully fans will be able to understand this and they will accept this explanation without dragging this issue out.
By George Robbins
While normally a strong opening weekend for movies, Thanksgiving weekend worked a bit differently this year and there was nothing that could be done about it. The pandemic has strongly affected movie releases since it started back in March earlier this year which has led to countless films being pushed from this year’s roster or doing terribly at the box office. There are plenty of films that were meant to have released by now but many studios are not taking any risks and are now trying to get their films to release in timeframes where things will be better for release. There have been a couple of attempts by studios thus far to try and get people to go back out to the movies and this hasn’t stopped. Studios are trying to get people back out to theaters to the best of their abilities, but there is a limit to what they can do in the end.
The movie that was meant to be able to test the waters of the movie market was the movie ‘Tenet,’ but the only thing to end up happening was that the movie ended up being a failure in the end. While the movie ended up having a relatively strong opening weekend in both the international and domestic markets, it quickly started going downhill. This is what led many other studios to move all of their films out of this year’s time slots and push them into next year. The year has yet to end though, and many other films have still been slated for some kind of release from now until year’s end. This is why we are now seeing a situation where many films are releasing on digital after 17 days in theaters, or they are being released at the same time on both digital and in theaters.
Unfortunately, there weren’t really any options available for this past weekend that people were interested in going to see because studios don’t want to release their films. Among the movies that actually released was an animated movie called ‘The Croods: A New Age‘ which ended up taking home the award this past weekend of highest box office. Despite a long and rough development process, the sequel to 2013’s ‘The Croods’ finally managed to have its official release and it is somewhat paying off. While not having a traditionally strong opening weekend, the movie still managed to do fairly well in its own right. The movie was even on track to beat out ‘Tenet’ in its opening weekend box office which wasn’t really a small amount. What is really important moving forward is if the movie will continue to bring in money over the next few weekends, or will it end up like ‘Tenet.’
By George Robbins
This year has been one with a lot of ups and downs which has caused many things to happen that no one would have ever expected to happen and the year isn’t over yet. While most industries are currently suffering due to the pandemic at the moment, we have all been made aware by now that it is the film industry which is having perhaps the hardest time. Most of that, of course, stems from the fact that movie theaters aren’t really functioning at max capacity right now due to the fact that they have their own new rules they must follow. Health guidelines aside, people just haven’t been comfortable with going out to the movies again because it is considered by the vast public to be way too risky. Therefore, theaters have been losing business hand-over-fist and they can’t help but be worried about their future which is definitely within the realm of reason.
When theaters reopened, they were excited and nervous to have new movies to show because it would provide a perfect opportunity to test the market. Testing the market is not easy and usually requires a sacrificial lamb and in this case that lamb just so happened to be the movie ‘Tenet. ‘ ‘Tenet’ was expected to be the Christopher Nolan blockbuster which would be able to bring people back to theaters and it was on track to be a massive release, but it was easy to see just after launch that the movie was definitely suffering from the current climate. The movie released to a strong degree, though nowhere near as strong as it was originally going to be before the pandemic hit. Therefore, it was expected that this trend would continue as the weeks went on, but this would turn out to not be the case as the movie would go on to make much less in the next few weeks.
When other studios saw what would happen if they tried to release their biggest films this year, they immediately pushed all of their films into either the end of the year or some time next year. Those that decided to keep a date for this year will either be releasing straight to digital, releasing to theaters for 17 days before releasing on digital, or releasing on both platforms at once. These are the current options for dealing with these sorts of things at the moment and there is no telling if things will even work out for those that are doing this. Those that have released in theaters before releasing on digital managed to bring in a few million to help theaters, but everyone knows it is not enough to help theaters stay afloat during this period of time. Therefore, most aren’t even bothering with releasing their films and will instead be waiting until a better timeframe to release their films.
While many new movies will not be able to show properly, this year has still been a big year for certain movies which has led to a lot of different discussion. Of course, the pandemic is the reason why so much is different this year as opposed to previous years, owing to the fact no movies can really release in theaters at the moment which has led to major things happening. Before the pandemic began, any movies that were out beforehand managed to have decent theatrical runs, especially those released in early February or earlier. Among those movies to have luckily released before the pandemic began was the ‘Sonic the Hedgehog‘ movie which easily managed to break a couple of records. This movie was one that no one expected to be good and that worked in its favor.
When everyone heard that there was going to be a movie based on the video game character Sonic the Hedgehog, they immediately thought that the movie wasn’t going to be good in any way. When the first trailer for the movie released, even those who were still holding out hope that the movie could be decent gave up due to the character design. After enough people complained, they delayed the release of the film in order to completely redesign the character before the movie’s actually had a release. What they came back with was a version of the character which was much more grounded by the original character design and people decided they would go see the movie upon release. The end result of the whole movie’s campaign was the fact that the movie ended up doing really well at the box office.
No one would have expected, based upon the trailers of the film, that the movie would actually end up doing as well as it did at the box office. Being a video game movie, and one that no one was expecting anything from, the movie already had a strong bias against it from the start which made it difficult for the movie to begin with. Luckily, the movie’s release of the original trailer and its rework led to people becoming curious about the film which plays into the phrase, “Any publicity is good publicity.” Having grossed just over $300 million, this movie has become the most successful video game movie to date which led to there being talks of a sequel. Not only is it the highest grossing domestic video game film, but it is also going to be taking another record away this year.
Marvel Studios’ MCU films usually take home the title of not only the highest grossing superhero films, but also the highest grossing films of the year sometimes. They have been keeping up that tradition for awhile now and they didn’t plan on stopping. Unfortunately, the pandemic prevented this from happening and now the title of highest grossing superhero movie for the year will go to ‘Sonic the Hedgehog.’ Now, moving forward with the unexpected popularity of the first film, they will be starting production on ‘Sonic the Hedgehog 2’ in March 2021 for a probable 2022 release date. The unexpected popularity of the movie was not only based upon its references to the video games themselves, but also the new-to-universe feel the movie had. There was something for every crowd to see in the movie and that definitely helped the movie along in the end.
Now, going along with the theme of playing along with references from the video games, the current name of the sequel’s production is ‘Emerald Hill.’ For those unaware, this is an area in the original Sonic 2 video game which is something fans of the character will most definitely enjoy. As of now, this is just a working title, but based upon what happened at the end of the first film, we have no idea what will happen in the upcoming sequel. While we may have to guess what will be happening in the upcoming film and what its title will be, there is no doubt that it will definitely end up catching people’s attentions. Whether this ends up being a good thing or a bad thing is also unknown, but we will definitely have to keep our eyes open for the upcoming sequel.
Get Some Strange!
