Will COVID-19 end theatrical movies

[Amadeus Arkham]

The Studio have contract with Theaters but we have seen AMC threat to not play Universal movies, and believe Regal and couple others said they were doing the samething. So apparently there is some level of flexibility in those contracts.

This might be true, but how confident should we really be in them actually committing to this? These threats seem like nothing more than another case of all bark but no bite. I seriously doubt they have the temerity to do any of this even if they could theoretically workaround the contracts. The virus hasn’t only put people on life support, it’s put the movie industry on life support as well. The industry is dying or at near risk of dying. They’d be insane to actually do anything remotely close to this. Especially when they need movies from studios like Warners and Universal to survive. They’re their lifeline.

[regnak]

This might be true, but how confident should we really be in them actually committing to this? These threats seem like nothing more than another case of all bark but no bite. I seriously doubt they have the temerity to do any of this even if they could theoretically workaround the contracts. The virus hasn’t only put people on life support, it’s put the movie industry on life support as well. The industry is dying or at near risk of dying. They’d be insane to actually do anything remotely close to this. Especially when they need movies from studios like Warners and Universal to survive. They’re their lifeline.

It all depends on whether the theaters can still make profits on movies that stream the same day. If they cannot or will make less than other movies that don’t do that then the decision is easy.

[titanfan]

If theaters wanted to prevent this can they "ban" WB movies from theaters?

It was implied that WB had the blessing of the theater chains when doing this.

Frankly, of all the big studio chains, WB was the one who released "Tenet" and gave the theaters a bone. The other big studios are showing nothing--they keep postponing release dates indefinitely.

While it's not an ideal solution, it looks like nothing is changing in the near future. Even with vaccine distributions, etc. A lot of people will not be going back to theaters right away. Frankly, it seems like WB is the only big studio chain keeping their movie showing partners in mind.

[Gaastra]

Posted in the box office thread and will repost here (i know some of you hate that)

Box office this week--




Croods 2 has the best post virus numbers in america (but small over overseas markets and past years)


https://deadline.com/2020/12/monster...ce-1234651166/


Croods 2 top $600m ww. Expected to break $50M in china.


Monster hunter will edit scene so it can return to china. Made $2.65m in five countries minus china who yanked it. That hurt it's box office but helped croods 2.

Demon slayer movie closing in on spirited away the highest grossing film in japan history! It's a blockbuster during a virus! It has been confirmed for american big screen release next year.

In Japan, Demon Slayer The Movie: Mugen Train is estimated to have added about $6M during the FSS session. That would bring the local total to 28.7B yen ($276M) and leave 2.1B yen between the cultural phenomenon and Japan’s highest-grossing film ever, Spirited Away (30.8B yen), which it should catch before month’s end. Last weekend, it sailed past Titanic to take the No. 2 spot on Japan’s all-time charts. It is already the No. 1 animated title of 2020 worldwide, and internationally, and remains at Nos. 5 and 3 in the overall worldwide and international rankings for the year — based on the Japan cume alone.
Demon Slayer a few weekends ago became IMAX’s biggest movie ever in Japan and has now reached a cume of $18M in the market (adding $655K this weekend for a mere 20% drop). The Toho/Aniplex/Ufotable juggernaut has a total $19.3M in IMAX when including Taiwan and Hong Kong (the latter market’s cinemas were closed again last week amid a coronavirus surge).

Stand by me Doreamon 2 doing well overseas also.


Also japan morbius trailer confirms japan box office is doing great and they will get the movie on the big-screen next year!

All doom and gloom in america but some countries their box office is doing great.



Croods 2 doing better (but still small change from last years with the virus) is still a good sign movie chains can jump back. Not sure why wb wants to kill it so bad.

[Holt]

Croods 2 top $600m ww.

https://www.forbes.com/sites/scottme...ion-worldwide/

Try 60 million.

Croods 2 doing better (but still small change from last years with the virus) is still a good sign movie chains can jump back. Not sure why wb wants to kill it so bad.

Because, like Tenet, those domestic numbers still aren't great even in the context of a virus. There's no way they were gonna opt for traditional theatrical releases in this environment. It came down to losing money at the box office or losing money at the box office while potentially providing a major boost for their underperforming streaming service, so they chose the latter.

[Gaastra]

https://deadline.com/2020/12/warnerm...ng-1234651283/

Legendary's pictures just sent a legal letter to wb over kong and dune. They were not told before and are not happy! (they paid for 70% of the three films and stopped the netflix deal so yeah they are ticked!)

Uh-oh.

Other wb partners and directors and stars who get big screen profits did not know also.

It had begun all right! The court battles and lawsuits has begun!


Deadline confirms other partners are ticked also and may join legendary! Uh-oh!

[Maestro 216]

https://deadline.com/2020/12/warnerm...ng-1234651283/

Legendary's pictures just sent a legal letter to wb over kong and dune. They were not told before and are not happy! (they paid for 70% of the three films and stopped the netflix deal so yeah they are ticked!)

Uh-oh.

Other wb partners and directors and stars who get big screen profits did not know also.

It had begun all right! The court battles and lawsuits has begun!


Deadline confirms other partners are ticked also and may join legendary! Uh-oh!

Yeah a bloodbath is coming

[Derek Metaltron]

The whole thing is stupid because of the expectation of everyone outside the USA to just lump it. This could work for Disney+ because it's fairly worldwide at this point except Asia where theatres are pretty active now anyway.

[Jim Kelly]

We shouldn't really be calling it a "Warner Bros." decision. The actual beast that was created by the American Telephone and *******ph acquisition is "Warner Media." "Warner Bros." doesn't have any power over "HBO Max"--they both are controlled by "Warner Media." I would think that as the parent company, "Warner Media" has control over all the smaller companies,"Warner Bros.," "HBO Max," "Legendary Pictures," "DC Entertainment" and the like.

[Gaastra]

James gunn and nolan ticked and angry at wb.

Also--

The other companies that finance Warners movies, Village Roadshow and Bron, are also said to be aggrieved parties that might end up going to court.

https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/ne...rner-bros-plan

[Joker]

Someone needs to tell Chris Nolan to shut the **** up. Just stop speaking to the press.

[ComicJunkie21]

Someone needs to tell Chris Nolan to shut the **** up. Just stop speaking to the press.

Yes he was overly emotional but if you look past that he had some very legitimate points. I don't think Warner had the right people in the room on this to check the financial, legal, and business relations impact this would have. Especially from reading that they had to pay Gal Gadot and Patty Jenkins each over 10 million for the move. In addition to the lawsuits that are coming from Legendary and any other agrieved studios. Warner may also be sued because they blocked the Netflix deal where Legendary paid 75% costs and now is taking it for nothing. Although Legendary is a subsidiary they are still legally a separate entity and can take action.

[KNIGHT OF THE LAKE]

This might be true, but how confident should we really be in them actually committing to this? These threats seem like nothing more than another case of all bark but no bite. I seriously doubt they have the temerity to do any of this even if they could theoretically workaround the contracts. The virus hasn’t only put people on life support, it’s put the movie industry on life support as well. The industry is dying or at near risk of dying. They’d be insane to actually do anything remotely close to this. Especially when they need movies from studios like Warners and Universal to survive. They’re their lifeline.

A Disney film comes out the same week as a WB film. WB film is also streaming. AMC only allocates one screen for the WB film. Everyone see’s the Disney film. Disney gets good press for a successful film, WB is fighting reports of bad theatrical numbers. Negotiations come up and theaters wants a bigger cut of tickets for WB films

[KNIGHT OF THE LAKE]

Someone needs to tell Chris Nolan to shut the **** up. Just stop speaking to the press.

No he’s right and he’s not the only director raging against this. He’s made WB money for how many years? He’s basically an exclusive to them. He could go to any studio he wants

[AnakinFlair]

https://deadline.com/2020/12/warnerm...ng-1234651283/

Legendary's pictures just sent a legal letter to wb over kong and dune. They were not told before and are not happy! (they paid for 70% of the three films and stopped the netflix deal so yeah they are ticked!)

Uh-oh.

Other wb partners and directors and stars who get big screen profits did not know also.

It had begun all right! The court battles and lawsuits has begun!


Deadline confirms other partners are ticked also and may join legendary! Uh-oh!

https://giphy.com/gifs/qN7NZR3Q5R2mY/html5