For over the past year, movie theaters around the world have struggled to stay alive due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Many movie theater owners were, for instance, disappointed when “Tenet” flopped hard in the box office when it was released in August 2020.
However, the box office has started to see a bit of new light in recent months. Movie releases like “Godzilla vs. Kong” and “A Quiet Place Part II” have shown that people are actually interested in attending movie theaters once again. The real question is if the changes the movie industry has made will permanently affect how much money movie theaters can make.
Same-Day Releases
While some consumers feel safe to visit their local movie theater, many people also like the choice of being able to pay money to stream that money at home the same day it hits movie theaters. Huge movie distributors like Disney have noticed this, allowing consumers to purchase movies day 1 from home, such as “Cruella” and “Black Widow.”
This approach makes movie theaters a bit wary about how much money they can be making in the future. This is due to the idea that many people that are ok with going to the movie theater will simply choose to purchase the movie at home due to the convenience. It will be interesting to see if movie distributors quit allowing this choice or continue offering movies to their consumers at home.
Exclusive Releases
Movie companies are started to having many movie releases backed up due to not being able to release anything in theaters. However, these companies don’t know yet if exclusive releases are ready. For example, Disney is making their first theatrical exclusive in over a year when “Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings” hits movie theaters in September. If this movie ends up not making a lot of money, movie distributors might choose to wait a couple more months for the COVID-19 pandemic to get better. It’s important for movie theaters everywhere that movies make their money back to show that expensive movies can make their money back and more just by exclusively being released in movie theaters first.