Will COVID-19 end theatrical movies

[luprki]

Tenet opens to 20 million. The studio spin doctors are already trying to frame it as a hit.

True, $20 million is a mega flop for a big budget movie.

[Holt]

In the wake of Tenet's underperformance, exhibitors are bracing for Wonder Woman 1984 to be delayed yet again.
https://deadline.com/2020/09/wonder-...as-1203019735/

Article notes there are rumblings about Black Widow moving too.

[XPac]

In the wake of Tenet's underperformance, exhibitors are bracing for Wonder Woman 1984 to be delayed yet again.
https://deadline.com/2020/09/wonder-...as-1203019735/

Article notes there are rumblings about Black Widow moving too.

Disney can just do what they did with Mulan and air Black Widow on Disney plus for an additional 30 fee. That seemed to work okay, so far at least.

[Jim Kelly]

Will we ever know how much money MULAN made?

It sounds like Disney has a whole mess of problems. It might be a movie that families with Plus would be willing to pay the extra $30 to see--but it's not really a great deal for individuals. There's the fact that it's a remake but without the fun that young children would want--so why not just watch the animated movie. They've let it be known that you can get it for free with your subscription later--so I would imagine a lot of people will just wait. And then there's not one but two controversies over the movie that are discouraging. You put all those negatives together and anyone weighing the decision to pay the extra fee is more likely to just not bother.

BLACK WIDOW was supposed to compensate Scarlett Johansson for all those times she was passed over for her own big budget theatrical movie. If they put it on the same service that has LOKI and WANDAVISION, it makes it seem like she's still not worthy of playing on a bigger stage. And how much money would she actually get from that versus a theatrical release? Aren't they still trying to work out how to pay actors for streaming--as the bookkeeping isn't the same as it is for theatrical releases?

[RockyHorror]

I don't think Disney is trying to make a killing, they're doing their best with the circumstances they have. Will Black Widow do any better? Perhaps, but it is not likely to make its budget. Will that affect Scarlett' s screen presence negatively? Of course not. It's not like there's s controversy around the circumstances.

[Holt]

Sony Pictures will not be releasing any tentpoles theatrically until the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic has been resolved.

"What we won’t do is make the mistake of putting a very, very expensive $200 million movie out in the market unless we’re sure that theaters are open and operating at significant capacity," Sony Pictures Entertainment Chairman Tony Vinciquerra said at Bank of America’s 2020 Media, Communications & Entertainment Conference.

"You’ll see a lot of strange things happen over the next six months in how films are released, how they’re scheduled, how they’re marketed, but once we get back to normal, we will have learned a lot I think and found ways to do things that are somewhat different and hopefully better," he added.

https://www.thewrap.com/sony-wont-ma...eaters-reopen/

[Joker]

Tenet opens to 20 million. The studio spin doctors are already trying to frame it as a hit.

I don't know what they expected, or what in good conscience they could expect.

I love Nolan, but I'm not going to see this in a theatre. Sorry.

And to be honest, it legitimately disgusted me that Nolan and the studio insisted this be a theatrical release.

[Maestro 216]

I don't know what they expected, or what in good conscience they could expect.

I love Nolan, but I'm not going to see this in a theatre. Sorry.

And to be honest, it legitimately disgusted me that Nolan and the studio insisted this be a theatrical release.

They wanted to help save movies

[Vakanai]

They wanted to help save movies

Well they should try to save movies in a way that doesn't risk people getting covid. And there's no way to do that in theaters right now that is both responsible and profitable.

If you want to save movies, maybe invest in a chain of drive ins you can expand. I'd go see a movie in my car if there was a drive in anywhere close to me, but there isn't. But you will not find me in a theater the rest of this year or the early part of the next at the least.

[Jim Kelly]

They wanted to help save movies

If you look at the percentage that they're demanding from theatres for the run of the movie, they aren't really being as altruistic as all that. They don't want to save movies or save theatres. They want to save themselves. And they're willing to risk the interests of others to make their money back.

Whether it was Nolan or Warner Bros., I don't know, but they were very selfish. I get it--it cost a lot of money to make. And if they release it on streaming--that's an open invitation to pirates. So they want to protect their product and they are in a bind how to make money off of the thing. But they were willing to risk the economic fortunes of the theatres and the health of the audiences--and they weren't willing to let it play in drive-ins in areas where in-door theatres were shut.

So I don't have much sympathy for the millionaires and billionaires who ended up with a white elephant, due to a pandemic that has killed almost a million people and left more people with lifelong medical disabilities. My sympathy is for those people--the people who have truly suffered and lost.

[kingaliencracker]

Looks like Tenet did substantially worse than originally reported:

https://m.facebook.com/story.php?sto...15348028495665

[Joker]

and they weren't willing to let it play in drive-ins in areas where in-door theatres were shut.

This was kinda the final nail in me caring about it. Like, fuuuuuuuck youuuuuuuu. I would have gone to a drive in to see it.

[AnakinFlair]

In the wake of Tenet's underperformance, exhibitors are bracing for Wonder Woman 1984 to be delayed yet again.
https://deadline.com/2020/09/wonder-...as-1203019735/

Article notes there are rumblings about Black Widow moving too.

Here's my question: what constitutes a hit or a failure right now? If you release a movie in these circumstances, where hundreds if not thousands of theaters are still closed, and those that are open are only working at a fraction of their capacity, and people are still scared to sit in a theater in the middle of a pandemic- then of course it's going to be a box-office bomb! Or would you count it a success that it made any money at all?

They wanted to help save movies

If they wanted to save movies, they should have held off until next year. It's not like that is never done- Wonder Woman was held for 6 months before the pandemic even hit, New Mutants bounced all over the place, even Star Wars got pushed back a few months several years ago. But they got greedy, and discovered that not that many people wanted to take a risk to see the movie on the big screen.

[XPac]

Here's my question: what constitutes a hit or a failure right now? If you release a movie in these circumstances, where hundreds if not thousands of theaters are still closed, and those that are open are only working at a fraction of their capacity, and people are still scared to sit in a theater in the middle of a pandemic- then of course it's going to be a box-office bomb! Or would you count it a success that it made any money at all?




If they wanted to save movies, they should have held off until next year. It's not like that is never done- Wonder Woman was held for 6 months before the pandemic even hit, New Mutants bounced all over the place, even Star Wars got pushed back a few months several years ago. But they got greedy, and discovered that not that many people wanted to take a risk to see the movie on the big screen.

I think regardless of the situation, sucess has to be measured by at LEAST doing more than just break even. In most cases that means more than doubling your budget. Unfortunately, for the most expenseive movies that may simply not be possible.

[AnakinFlair]

I think regardless of the situation, sucess has to be measured by at LEAST doing more than just break even. In most cases that means more than doubling your budget. Unfortunately, for the most expenseive movies that may simply not be possible.

Exactly. The studio had to know there was no way they could even make their money back, not with half the theaters in the world closed right now.