So Why is ‘Candyman’ Waiting for a Theatrical Release?
By George Robbins
Plenty of movies are now working to get themselves released onto the open market, but there are still plenty of restrictions in place to mess with those plans. Many movies have had the fun and difficult time of trying to get themselves on the market due to the pandemic that is still managing to plague the world we all live in. This has made it just a bit more difficult for studios to carry on with their business nowadays and many movies have not released yet as planned. Although many movies are still waiting off in the wings, some have actually managed to release to the public at large. This is how we recently had releases for a small number of films within the past month or so. Well, more specifically, over the past few weeks there have been some releases.
One of the biggest releases that the world was treated to was the release of the long-awaited movie ‘Tenet‘ from director Christopher Nolan. Nolan had been advocating for awhile by the time of the movie’s release for the film to be the first one available once theaters could reopen their doors. This mostly ended up being the case as the movie had its international release as the first blockbuster film to release since the start of the pandemic. Even though the film had to wait an extra week to release in theaters domestically, it was still an overall success and among the first major releases in some time. Considering the limited variety in films upon release, it is no surprise that the film did so well.
Even though the film ended up doing well, the fact hasn’t changed that the film did not make as much money as it would have if the pandemic wasn’t an issue. It definitely did better than what they originally expected from it, but that doesn’t mean that they don’t have an uphill battle going against them. The world is still in a very bad place at the moment and people are trying to just brush that fact aside which only makes things worse. Therefore, studios are in just as terrible a spot as the rest of the world at large and movies have a long way to go before they can start making money the way they want to again in theaters. Theaters are not the only option for movies to make money though as we have learned well by now.
Video on Demand, or VOD, is perhaps one of the best ways for film studios to make their money nowadays as it allows people to pay for new films without issue. Perfect for the pandemic, VOD allows people to watch new movies without having to leave their homes and risk their’s or other people’s health. This is not the best case scenario for them though as having a theatrical release beforehand allows studios the chance to make even more money before they permanently allow people to own their films. Hence the reason many studios have decided to just wait until a good time for them to be able to show their films in theaters. This is actually how we ended up with many films being delayed until either late this year or some time next year. On that list of films that have been delayed was the spiritual “sequel” to the movie ‘Candyman‘ which shares the same name.
In order to put things simply, I will just say that the original ‘Candyman‘ movie is a supernatural horror movie. It followed a young woman as she was being haunted by a man who killed whomever he felt was necessary to achieve his goals. Now we will soon be seeing a new rendition of the film which is being produced by Jordan Peele. It is one of those movies that will not be going straight to VOD and will actually hold out for a theatrical release, but some have asked why it will be among that group of films. Director Nia DaCosta admitted recently that the reason the movie is being pushed to next year for a theatrical release is because she insists that it is a movie that should be experienced by groups of people in theaters instead of being viewed individually at home. Whether this is true or not will be determined when the film releases theatrically in 2021.