Hollywood Is Ignoring The Obvious In The Theaters Vs Streaming Debate

Hollywood Is Ignoring The Obvious In The Theaters Vs. Streaming Debate

Recent news has seen debates among studios, theaters, and artists blaming streaming for box office losses, without noting COVID as a primary factor.

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Hollywood Is Ignoring The Obvious In The Theaters Vs Streaming Debate

A recent hot topic within Hollywood has been whether co-releasing films on streaming services and in theaters harms box office revenue, but they’re missing the elephant in the room: The COVID-19 pandemic is still running rampant. Back in March 2020, the coronavirus began spreading so profusely around the globe that most of the world shut down, meaning nonessential businesses and industries, like movie theaters, had to change their courses. For many studios, waiting to release a film into theaters wasn’t a viable option, so they went straight to subscription streaming or were placed online for an increased rental price. Now that many restrictions are lifted, adjusting back to theaters with simultaneous streaming is causing an issue among box office revenue and contracts for newly released films.

Since the news of shutdowns was announced back in early 2020, many studios decided to delay the release dates of major blockbuster films, many even being pushed back by more than a year. Movie theaters have largely been open with higher capacities since late spring 2021, with A Quiet Place Part II being noted as the world’s wide entrance back into theaters. Many newly released films expected to bring in a high box office total back at their original premiere dates have largely disappointed, with primary examples being Black Widow, Space Jam: A New Legacy, and F9: The Fast Saga. Black Widow’s unexpected second-week box office drop led to such a stir that Scarlett Johansson is suing Disney for revenue losses, citing Disney+’s simultaneous streaming release as the source of her lost compensation.

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While there’s no doubt streaming, and even as a minor consequence, piracy, has contributed to a decrease in theater attendance, COVID-19 is primarily being ignored in the debate. Just because vaccination levels are slowly going up doesn’t mean the pandemic is over; the United States alone is still 20 to 40 percent below the vaccination goal. With the Delta variant spreading among the unvaccinated, and in rare occurrences vaccinated people, the amount of people unwilling to go to movie theaters is significant. Cinemas also tend to operate like restaurants, meaning many take the eating rule with leniency and don’t wear masks at all, increasing the hesitancy of people to sit in a compact room with unmasked, unvaccinated patrons for two-plus hours.

Although an easy scapegoat for blaming theater losses, streaming is a viable option for families and individuals who don’t want to risk exposing themselves to the coronavirus to see a movie. Box office revenue was always going to be lower than projected, there was no getting around such an outcome during a pandemic, but it can’t solely be blamed on PVOD blockbuster releases. One can argue many of the recently released movies weren’t very good, meaning fewer attendees in a pandemic or not, but box office losses, and especially the choice to spend $30 on Premier Access, are largely fueled by the COVID-19 pandemic. For studios, streaming releases recuperated much of the losses they would have seen with a sole wide theatrical release, while also giving individuals, and especially families with unvaccinated children, a safe way to enjoy long-awaited new films.

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The recent debate about studios breaching contracts with artists by not compensating for box office losses with streaming is valid – Scarlett Johansson, for example, should have been fairly compensated for her lost box office bonus considering her Disney contract conveniently left out that the film would be simultaneously released on Disney+ Premier Access. Disney’s response about Johansson being insensitive to the horrors of COVID-19 was a cheap comeback, knowing they were in the wrong for not compensating her for the streaming revenue. The COVID-19 pandemic has had a largely unspoken underlying role in Hollywood’s streaming vs. theater debate, but that doesn’t mean artists shouldn’t have been recompensed accordingly.

Link Source : https://screenrant.com/movie-theaters-vs-streaming-covid-box-office-impact/

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