Exhibitors may have hit back yesterday, but Universal Pictures isn’t backing down.
NBCUniversal chief Jeff Shell told investors on Thursday, during Comcast’s quarterly earnings call, that premium VOD releases for some titles will be a “complementary element” to traditional theatrical distribution for the studio.
Shell says that while he sees theatrical distribution as rebounding from the pandemics, the reality for many consumers is that new release films have to be watched in the home and the studios would be foolish to ignore that:
“The question is, when we come out of this, what is going to be the model? I would expect that consumers will return to theaters and we will be part of that. I also would expect PVOD is going be part of that offering in some way. It’s not going to be a replacement but it will be a complimentary element and we’re just going to have to see how long that takes and where it takes us.
There’s no question that theatrical is some day again going to be the central element to our business in the film business. It’s how people make their movies and how they expect movies to be seen. The flip side is the majority of movies, whether we like it or not, are being consumed at home and it’s not realistic to assume we’re not going to change, that this part of this business isn’t going to change like all parts of the business are going to change.”
He may have a point. John Fithian, CEO of the National Association of Theatre Owners, admitted this week that the openings of “Mulan” and “Tenet” will not open to the kind of numbers they would have a year ago.
Universal has been in a war of words this week with AMC Theatres, NATO and more recently Regal in the wake of AMC vowing to not play Universal movies due to their recent major success of the premium VOD release of “Trolls World Tour”. There is no such boycott planned for Warners or Disney titles, despite both studios also abandoning their “Scoob!” and “Artemis Fowl” theatrical plans for direct-to-streaming premieres.
Source: Variety
