Obviously the coronavirus pandemic is changing the way the entire world operates. Cities are shutting down, businesses are closing, quarantines are being enacted and people are trying to live in the new normal. The government is now saying that a best case scenario for the outbreak sees it lasting until July or August. That’s a long time. That’s also prime movie-releasing time for Hollywood studios. The summer movie season is going to be very, very different this year.
Because of the disruption COVID-19 is causing, you are starting to see major studios adjusting. The first one is Universal Pictures which will be altering the current theatrical window timeline that every studio follows. They announced that their upcoming roster of films will be available on-demand at the same time they’re released theatrically. Already-released Universal movies like The Invisible Man, The Hunt and Emma will be on-demand this week while upcoming films, including Trolls World Tour, will be made available to home-viewing audiences on their respective release dates. This makes sense because an increasing number of theater chains are closing during the pandemic so audiences can’t see movies on the big screen, as if they’d want to be holed up with a bunch of sniffly-nosed strangers. Now they will be able to see the latest Universal feature from their comfort of their own homes.
Don’t get too exited because the price of streaming these rentals will be $19.99 per film. That ain’t cheap.
NBCUniversal, which obviously owns Universal, made a point to say that this won’t be an ever-lasting change and they don’t expect to do this for all their 2020 releases. It seems that this will be their new approach for the foreseeable future, at least until things calm down a bit. But changing something that has existed in the movie industry for ages is a huge, huge deal. Typically a movie would be essentially owned by movie theaters for 90 days before studios would then release the film on home video. Universal’s decision to release movies at home on the same day they hit theaters is a huge, huge deal. It’s also something that theater chains and studios had been battling over long before COVID-19. As we all know, Netflix has been attempting to dismantle the theatrical window but has so far failed at any major disruption to how things are done. It seems that COVID-19 is finally doing that.
I don’t expect to see Universal follow this release model after the coronavirus pandemic subsides (IF it subsides…) but this is one of those instances where you can’t put the toothpaste back in the tube. This change will greatly alter how millions of people view movies and they will grow accustomed to watching new releases at home. As well, this proves that major studios can release films day-and-date in theaters and on-demand, they just don’t want to. But now that this disease is forcing their hand, this could become a more common occurrence.
If (no, when) other major studios follow Universal’s lead and start releasing their films at home and in theaters on the same day, we will have really crossed a threshold. And while I know that Universal, Paramount, Disney and so many others will always prefer audiences seek out their films in theaters, I do believe that this emergency decision might be shaking things up for the future of the movie business. This change may be something felt long after COVID-19 disappears.