Over the years the release strategy for Hollywood studio films has changed, especially when it comes to global rollouts. In the 1980s and 1990s, films could take months to make their way from U.S. cinemas to overseas markets.
As the internet grew, the world got smaller and the threat of piracy got larger and so the push towards day-and-date global releases began and for much of the last ten years chances are if a film has opened in the States then it will open in overseas markets either the same day or within a few weeks.
Occasionally there’s the rare case of a Hollywood film hitting overseas markets before the U.S. release, as has happened with a bunch of Marvel Studios titles over the years, though the difference is often just a matter of days. Now, in the age of the COVID-19 pandemic, the possibility of day-and-date global releases seems relatively impossible until a vaccine has been widely distributed globally.
At the same time both non-U.S. exhibitors and audiences, many of them in countries that have got the coronavirus under control, are growing increasingly concerned about the future of their own cinemas and frustrated by Hollywood’s ‘U.S. first’ stance – a policy of tradition that could not only hurt the bottom line of both studios and exhibitors but ultimately cripple global cinema altogether.
Earlier this week came the news that Christopher Nolan’s $200 million budgeted time inversion thriller “Tenet” has been pulled from its planned global day-and-date launch and is now considering following a new staggered release strategy – one in which the film is rolled out gradually and only releasing in those markets which are able to open safely.
Warners isn’t yet giving exact dates, but sources for THR indicate “Tenet” hopes to begin opening in international markets in late August before arriving in the U.S. in early September albeit only in select cities. The situation however remains highly fluid.
A staggered rollout could reduce major marketing costs as buzz will be allowed to build slowly. Wall Street analysts have endorsed the shift, indicating that “a perfect date may never arrive for studios to release films under the traditional day and date model” so a gradual release plan would allow for the studio to begin monetizing a film theatrically and would help to build buzz for when the film opens into other markets.
As of this week, there are 35 states in the U.S. where local government and health authorities have said it is okay for movie theaters to reopen with social distancing and heightened sanitary measures. Another eight are partially open but some of the biggest remain closed.
The major U.S. chains are reportedly now amenable to the idea of switching on cinemas where they can as opposed to waiting until every location can re-open before everyone does re-open. After several months of no revenue, studios and exhibitors are now looking willing to take chances they wouldn’t take even a few months ago.
