The Box Office

[Immortal Weapon]

The problem that I think Universal is failing to realize is that these numbers are possibly the way they are because of the current economic condition that people are forced to be at home. Would they have had the same success if the conditions were different and people were able to leave their house and have access to different forms of entertainment? We don't know yet and it comes across as a poor tactic to jump head first into something that doesn't have a lot of data behind it to be a proven distribution method that can make back a film's budget outside of lockdown conditions.

AMC banning Universal might not mean much as they are on the verge of bankruptcy. If it doesn't take them out it will close down lots of their locations. Other major theater chains would have to get on board for this ban to have bigger impact.

[The Overlord]

And amc just banned all universal films for breaking their contract with trolls. To lift the ban universal may be shelling out more cash!

Also while wsj reported trolls 2 did great vod, it turns out it's not true and universal has made a big loss from the film.

So yeah, not sure how worth it this was for universal. Plus all they had to do was ask to get out of contact for trolls before like wb did scoob and none of this would have happened.



https://www.cbr.com/amc-theatres-ban...ms-trolls-vod/

Except AMC is trouble over this pandemic:

https://www.vanityfair.com/hollywood...ruptcy-reports

Will AMC turn down the next Fast and Furious movie?

AMC could be playing with fire, they could push under Paramount and Sony, Universal is tougher, but not as tough as taking on Warner Bros or Disney.

https://www.forbes.com/sites/scottme.../#60bb86403db7

Would Trolls World Tour set the Box Office on fire? I doubt it, releasing online during this crisis will make it more of a moneymaker than releasing it in theatres would have. Let's face it, in the future, we will see more movies being released directly online.

[matthew]

And it was confirmed by others after that it was not as big a hit as they are saying. Plus there is paying the streaming apps and all the money they spent on trailers and mcdonalds toys and clothes they have to pay back.

Why would they announce that they are going straight to VOD if it's not actually that successful? That doesn't make sense.

I don't know why anyone would be on the side of the theaters here. They are whining about not being able to have an exclusivity window any more. Consumers should be against exclusivity windows since they are, you know, anti-consumer.

I'm happy with what Universal is doing and hope others jump on board.

[skyvolt2000]

The problem that I think Universal is failing to realize is that these numbers are possibly the way they are because of the current economic condition that people are forced to be at home. Would they have had the same success if the conditions were different and people were able to leave their house and have access to different forms of entertainment? We don't know yet and it comes across as a poor tactic to jump head first into something that doesn't have a lot of data behind it to be a proven distribution method that can make back a film's budget outside of lockdown conditions.

So what is their excuse all the other times for communities that don't have movie theaters?

Like many of the POC communities in the USA? Our money not good enough?

AMC being petty and ignoring so many communities-is making it easier for them to meet their demise.

[choptop]

The AMC ban doesn't really matter right now 1 there aren't going to be any new movies Out for a year maybe 2-3? years 2 AMC probably won't even be around wean this is over.

[Immortal Weapon]

Regal Cinema is joining the ban
https://movieweb.com/the-battle-heat...versal-movies/

[Gaastra]

Update. Turns out amc did NOT ban universal but did put them in their place!

Universal pictures head more or less was telling everyone they plan to do more vod the same day as when they release them at the movies (Never mind the fact that universal will lose $53m on trolls world tour! The "it made more then the first" was pr spin. The first made more then $300 m world wide so it's got a long way to go to beat it!) and that of course not only breaks a contact that's been in play forever it hurts ALL the movie chains.

Amc head reminded them that breaking the contract leads to a ban of all their movies and more or less tells them to behave. Then the head of the whole movie corp puts out a message warning universal the same thing! Pretty much ALL movie chains will ban universal! (this is nothing new and how it has been for a long time!)

From what we heard the head of universal pictures got a "nice" talk from the head of comcast (their owner!) and have now said sorry and backed off.

So no ban. Just the movie head putting universal in it's place!

And yes amc and all those chains will ban universal if they breaks the rules!


Campea talks about it here but I listed the main points.

[Maestro 216]

Will Universal bend the knee?

[Midnighter]

Update. Turns out amc did NOT ban universal but did put them in their place!

The "it made more then the first" was pr spin.adeal The first made more then $300 m world wide so it's got a long way to go to beat it!) and that of course not only breaks a contact that's been in play forever it hurts ALL the movie chains.

My understanding was not that they were claiming it made more money but that it was more profitable.

Under normal deals with the theaters they get about 50% of the profits and the rest go to the theaters and distributors and such.

With this VOD deal they were able to retain 80% of the profits.

[Valentis]

The Box office is officially done for the year. I cannot see any movie doing 200m profit in the USA and 600m worldwide.
Recent tracking of Mulan and Tenet are bad. Its time for studios to swallow their greed and stream away all these films.

[WestPhillyPunisher]

The Box office is officially done for the year. I cannot see any movie doing 200m profit in the USA and 600m worldwide.
Recent tracking of Mulan and Tenet are bad. Its time for studios to swallow their greed and stream away all these films.

I suspect studios will hold out until the very last minute on the hope that multiplexes will reopen. There's too much money out there that makes no other option possible, or palatable.

[Gaastra]

My understanding was not that they were claiming it made more money but that it was more profitable.

Under normal deals with the theaters they get about 50% of the profits and the rest go to the theaters and distributors and such.

With this VOD deal they were able to retain 80% of the profits.

Universal doesn't get to keep it all. They have to pay vudu and prime and others. They have to pay mcdonalds, and shoe companies and toy companies and trix cereal and pay for the huge market push they did before the virus hit! Plus they had a deal with hulu to have streaming rights so it won't be long till people get it on hulu killing their $20 rent plan.

As said universal will lose $53m on trolls world tour!

[Gaastra]

And Odeon (never heard of them) joins the ban threat.

Also universal may still release another film like trolls anyway after all the warnings!

Things may get nasty soon.

The studio intends to forge ahead with this tactic, announcing on Monday that Judd Apatow’s new Pete Davidson-led comedy The King of Staten Island would scrap its planned cinema release on 19 June and premiere on-demand instead.

https://www.theguardian.com/film/202...inema-releases

[Immortal Weapon]

Universal doesn't get to keep it all. They have to pay vudu and prime and others. They have to pay mcdonalds, and shoe companies and toy companies and trix cereal and pay for the huge market push they did before the virus hit! Plus they had a deal with hulu to have streaming rights so it won't be long till people get it on hulu killing their $20 rent plan.

As said universal will lose $53m on trolls world tour!

It sounds they are getting screwed on promotional deals they can't follow through on. Doesn't stop the movie itself being a VoD success. The academy seems to have their back as they are now allowing VoD and streaming films to be nominated.

IIRC, universal gets 80% so they still keep the lionshare of the revenue.

[Kirby101]

Look s to me like the theater chains are doing this to stop other studios from following Universal with doing straight to VOD. But that could backfire. They are already giving up on big money makers for them like Fast and Furious. The block out one more studio and they could see a hit to their own revenues that they might not recover from. If it were Disney, the theaters would collapse.
It all feels like an overreaction to me, since Trolls was released to a time of mostly closed theaters.