Troll’s World Tour Made More Than Predecessor on VOD
Due to the unexpected pandemic that has been brought upon the world by the coronavirus, companies have had to change the way they work. Entertainment companies have had to make some of the biggest changes of all to contend with. Production companies in particular have had to deal with what they have to do with movies that were slated for release. Either those films would have to be pushed back to a later theatrical release date or they would have to be released digitally. Those that have been released digitally are fairing pretty well all things considered.
Among the movies that were released onto VOD early recently was ‘Trolls: World Tour’ which didn’t even get a theatrical release. Instead, the film went straight to VOD so that Universal would be able to start making money on the film and they wouldn’t have to wait. This ended up working out for them, at least to some degree, after three weeks of the film being released digitally. The movie has made over $100 million since its digital release, making its revenue on VOD higher than the original film’s. This doesn’t mean that the movie will end up grossing more overall than the first film did, but it is definitely a start.
The movie probably isn’t going to make as much as it would if it managed to have its full theatrical release, but at least money is being made on the film. Of course a lot of money for marketing was lost because of the film losing its full release, but at least they are making money on it. Many companies can’t say the same because they decided to delay their films. That wasn’t necessarily a bad idea though, it just means they will have to wait awhile to put their product on the market. Universal is overall pretty happy with the fact that their film managed to make that much money.
Universal has wanted to try out this format since the release of movie ‘Tower Heist’ in 2011, but this pandemic has given them the perfect chance to try it. In general it works out for the company since they only have to focus on digital distribution, and it saves them the hassle of having to make and distribute physical copies. Also, with so many people at home, this ends up working out for them even more than if they had done this normally. The studio also gets to withhold more money from digital sales than from box office sales, so all-in-all the company definitely made out on VOD.