‘Sponge on the Run’ Forgoing Theatrical Release
By George Robbins
Ever since the middle of March movies have had almost no choice whatsoever in regards to keeping their movies on the same scheduled release dates. They have had to take movies out of theaters and release them digitally sooner than they wanted to, move the dates of film premieres, or just release their films straight to VOD. This is continuing to be an issue as time goes on since it seems things will not go the way people intended as cases of the virus have only increased. Ever since the reopening of many businesses, the virus has started spreading again and it will only keep spreading at this point. Once all theaters reopen, they won’t be able to draw in large crowds, so it is also dangerous for studios to put films out that could have little box office return.
Among the studios that have released films thus far is Universal who have decided to release their newest films to VOD instead of having theatrical releases. This has resulted in backlash from theater companies such as AMC which is a reason why many studios are simply delaying their films’ release dates. This helps them find out whether it will even be safe to put their films in theaters because even if they get a lot of turn-out, it won’t be nearly as many people as under normal circumstances. With this in mind, there are many films that will not see releases until late this year or some time next year because studios want to make as much as they can off of their films.
It can’t really be helped that some studios are willing to take a loss given everything that is going on right now. Even though it would be considered a loss, it could still end up being better for them in the long run as they can possibly recoup and make more money than it took to make and market the film. The truth of the matter is that the movie industry is kind of volatile right now as no one knows how things will end up over the next couple of months with theaters. If turn out is high enough for a couple of films, then we are sure to see studios keeping their theatrical releases in place so they can try and make their films successes. However, if turn out ends up being low, we could see more movies going straight to digital.
Most recently announced to be coming to digital is the ‘SpongeBob: Sponge on the Run‘ movie that was supposed to release this year. It was speculated that the movie would end up going straight to digital, but there was no word on that until now. The movie was supposed to have a full theatrical release this year, but now it will be delayed until 2021 and it will go straight to VOD. It will also have a streaming run on CBS All Access which is the CBS station’s personal streaming service. The delay will put the movie’s release some time into early next year and along with all past seasons of the show, it will be available on CBS All Access.