2020 has proved to be a pretty difficult year for Hollywood, the main reason being the fact that the Covid-19 pandemic simultaneously shut down the vast majority of theaters around the world,\ and halted production on dozens of different major films that were supposed to release this year. The shutdown of theaters across the world also prevented a lot of movies that were ready for release from coming out, because there wouldn’t be any theaters open to show them. Although this was ultimately the wisest decision for both theaters and film studios in order to keep their workers and patrons safe, it’s also created a number of challenges for Hollywood for how to move on from here. When theaters slowly began to open at limited capacities around the U.S. in the summer, some studios tried to release the big films that they were sitting on in theaters. One such example was Christopher Nolan’s Tenet, which released early in September. Like many of Nolan’s other films, it received relatively positive reviews from critics and casual audiences alike, but its box office returns were fairly underwhelming compared to previous films from the director. These results can be confidently attributed to the fact that not a lot of people are going to the movies because of the pandemic, and there just aren’t as many movie theaters open as there were before everything shut down in March. This begs the question, how can Hollywood make money, or at the very least get some kind of exposure for their multi-million dollar budgeted films that have been delayed several times over because of the pandemic? Well, for some of the biggest studios in Hollywood, it would appear that the answer can be found in streaming services.
Streaming services have always been a safe place for films to get more attention than they might in the theaters, primarily because of the pure convenience of being able to watch movies from home for a monthly fee that is often cheaper than a single bucket of popcorn. They’re often the last step in a film’s release cycle, as there has traditionally been more of a focus on theatrical and home video releases because that’s where the majority of Hollywood’s revenue comes from. However, now that revenue from those usual sources has declined dramatically, some major companies are taking to streaming services as a last resort. The two biggest companies to make waves with this shift in release strategy are Disney and Warner Bros., and their respective forays into releasing major films on streaming services have been met with mixed reactions.
Disney was the first one to really make the news with their utilization of their streaming service, Disney Plus, in response to the devastating effects of the pandemic. Disney’s first move towards taking advantage of everyone being home and theaters being closed was to move up the release of Lin-Manuel Miranda’s incredibly popular historical musical, Hamilton, from its original theatrical release in summer of next year to a release on Disney Plus in July of this year. This proved to be a genius move on the part of Disney, as the viewership of the musical ended up being greater than the amount of people that had seen it on Broadway, sitting at about 2.7 million views within its first week of release. The release of Hamilton on Disney Plus bolstered the streaming service’s popularity, as it previously faced criticism for a lack of content up to that point. Disney was lauded for allowing subscribers to experience a Broadway show that is infamous for being difficult to acquire tickets for, and at no additional cost other than the monthly subscription fee. It would seem that Disney had come across a great way to subvert the effects of theaters being closed while maintaining some level of profit, but things would quickly fall apart for the house of mouse with their next foray into streaming releases.
One of the biggest movies that Disney hyped up for 2020 was Mulan, a live-action adaptation of the beloved animated film from 1998. Anticipation for this movie was already shaky at best before the pandemic hit, as numerous trailers indicated a massive departure from the original film’s tone and content. Things went from bad to worse for the remake as Disney announced exactly how they would be releasing Mulan on to Disney Plus, and it wouldn’t be the same as how they released Hamilton. Instead of releasing Mulan on Disney Plus at no additional cost to subscribers, it would instead be available through something Disney termed “Premier Access”, which essentially meant that on top of the monthly fee for Disney Plus, people would need to shell out thirty dollars just to watch this one film that many people weren’t excited for to begin with. On top of this bizarre set up, Disney also said that film would become free for subscribers in December of this year, effectively giving everyone more of a reason to not pay the thirty dollars to watch Mulan and just wait till it became free to watch. Disney’s motivations behind this decision were pretty clear, they were trying to make back as much of the money that they spent to make and market Mulan as possible through Disney Plus, and the money that they get from subscription fees would not be enough to cover that. With the thirty dollar price tag being roughly the equivalent of three movie tickets, this strategy could have worked if it wasn’t for a film that looked like it would underwhelm before it even released. Ever since the backlash of the Mulan film ran its course, Disney hasn’t announced any new films to be released under a similar format, but there is one company that has seen what Disney did and plans to learn from their mistakes.
One of the newest streaming services on the scene is WarnerMedia’s HBO Max, which is essentially what used to be known as HBO Now but with a fancy new coat of purple and blue paint and some more content than just Game of Thrones. When HBO Max released in May of this year, it didn’t exactly make the biggest splash like Disney Plus did in November of 2019, but it had a respectable amount of content and continues to add more to this day. The platform has recently made waves however for its decision to release one of the most highly anticipated movies of 2020 for streaming. Wonder Woman 1984, the sequel to the very well-received Wonder Woman was set to release this year, but like many other films it faced delays because of the fact that many theaters simply weren’t open. The film moved from a summer release, to a fall release, and now it would seem that Warner Bros. has finally settled on releasing Wonder Woman 1984 in theaters and on HBO Max simultaneously on December 25th of this year. Warner decided to get one up on the house of mouse this time around, however, as they decided to leverage their ownership of HBO and DC Comics to bring fans the new Wonder Woman movie at no additional cost should they choose to watch on HBO Max. This came as a shock for many people, as Disney had seemed to set the terms for how movies would be released for streaming with their Mulan strategy. It would seem that HBO Max is doing all they can to avoid the mistakes that Disney previously made, while also trying to assert themselves in the streaming service market. This news was received very well by people itching to finally see the newest Wonder Woman movie, and if the release of Hamilton on Disney Plus is any indication, the handling of Wonder Woman 1984 is likely to bring in a lot of new subscribers for HBO Max.
With the ball officially in Disney’s court, it will be interesting to see how they follow up on HBO Max’s decision to capitalize on Wonder Woman 1984, while also trying to salvage their streaming reputation. One move that the company could make that would echo HBO Max would be to release the long-awaited Black Widow movie on Disney Plus. This would even the playing field between HBO Max and Disney Plus so to speak, as Disney would also have a major superhero film exclusive to their platform. So long as Disney doesn’t slap some kind of “Premier Access” on the film, it would definitely bring in a surge of viewers that are looking to watch the newest addition to the Marvel Cinematic Universe. What do you think of big studios putting their movies on streaming services instead of or at the same time as in theaters? Is this something that could carry on when movie theaters start to operate normally again, or is this just Hollywood’s way of making the best out of a bad situation? Let us know in the comments below, and for more news on pop culture and everything entertainment, check back here at its-bananas.