By Zac Ntim
All the major Hollywood film studios tend to follow, for the most part, a very rigid set of rules on how to release their big-budget blockbusters to the public: put the film in as many movie theaters as possible before making it available for home viewing.
It’s one of the only ways to “justify” their big budgets, Patrick Corcoran, Vice President of the National Associate of Theatre Owners, told Insider.
But the COVID-19 pandemic has muddied old practices. Patrick told Insider that at the moment, movie theaters across the US are running at “10–15% of what revenue should be nationwide” because even though many states have reopened their movie theaters, key markets such as New York City and Los Angeles have remain closed.
This has forced film studios into a period of experimentation. Over the summer, Warner Bros. opened Christopher Nolan’s “Tenet” in international movie theaters before tentatively placing the film in select US locations a month later. Smaller titles made their way, with varying success, to our homes via premium video-on-demand.
In May, Universal Studios made the first significant streaming move with “Trolls World Tour.”…
