It’s Time For Movies to Hit VOD The Same Day as Theaters Going Forward

The global novel coronavirus pandemic has been a wrench thrown into the middle of Hollywood’s well-oiled money-making machine. In a box office year that was already sure to be significantly down compared to 2019 (there’s no realistic way to duplicate the success of ending the Star Wars and Avengers stories that have been going on, and breaking box office records, for years), a global economic slowdown and a near-complete halt to production of TV and film around the world has left studios scrambling to do something — anything — to mitigate the pandemic’s impact, even as a global recession looms. And one of the few things that has had any real success generating revenue for the studios so far is widespread digital releases of mid-budget movies that either had just been, or were scheduled to be, in theaters in 2020.

There is no substitution for the theatrical experience, as exhibitors and studios regularly remind anybody who asks about a major motion picture going digital. Still, there is a convenience and intimacy to home release that some consumers prefer, and if studios can find a way to make it manageable for the rest of this year, they should seriously consider day-and-date digital releases for theatrical films going forward.

For years, studios did not want to see day-and-date theatrical releases because there was not an obvious path to profitability. Up until a just a few years ago, when Netflix started releasing big-budget movies on their platform and, at least apparently, clearing a profit on them, there was no model to follow. Now, though, streaming platforms like Netflix and Amazon Prime are responsible for some of the most expensive and acclaimed TV series in production, with several such services also churning out a steady stream of original feature films, sometimes with big names and bigger budgets attached.

After years of poo-pooing the idea of day-and-date digital releases, more recent rumors had suggested that some Hollywood studios were looking for a viable way to roll it out without completely alienating theatrical exhibitors. The pandemic presented that way — not through opportunity but adversity and desperation. Universal is going with the rental model that has long been proposed as a way to keep people interested in theaters — after all, if you aren’t going to own the movie anyway, you might as well just go see it in style rather than paying $20 to rent it at home. Other studios are almost all following the same model: anything really big, hold off until it can open theatrically. Everything else, decide on a case to case basis whether you’re going to hold it, or kick it to streaming at regular prices (roughly a $5 rental/$20 purchase).

Streaming platforms and SVOD services are pretty opaque in terms of the numbers, so it will be a while before outside observers have any real understanding of what is working and how well. Still, this gives studios an opportunity to try out a number of things, and by the time most of the stay-at-home orders are lifted, it’s entirely plausible that at least some major networks will have figured out a viable path forward…and some of those who haven’t will have streaming platforms of their own either up and running, or weeks away from their debut.

Studios having their own streaming apps is a game-changer, if only because they will need content to populate the apps and, with production effectively halted while we deal with the pandemic, material that’s already in the can but has not yet been released may be their best bets (this is one of the handful of arguments you get from fans hoping for an HBO Max debut of the Snyder Cut). This will throw another curveball into the already-complex math involved in whether or not to make same-day digital a reality, but it certainly tilts in favor, since even now, studios are forced to share the profits with middle men like Apple and Walmart (owners of iTunes and Vudu, respectively), whereas hosting it on your own native app allows you to pocket everything the audience is paying.

Things are going to be very different for the film industry going forward, and we’re hoping that one of the things we see is a more 21st Century approach to release dates and theatrical windows. Whether we get it is another question.