With the many cinemas closing around the world for until at least late April, and with many films prior to late May having already been pushed off the schedule, there’s understandable hyperbole about the ‘death of cinema’.
Things took another turn yesterday with Universal Pictures offering “Trolls World Tour” as a premium VOD title and collapsing the home video windows on many of its 2020 releases, Warners following suit with “Birds of Prey”.
Today, the cinema owners are fighting back as the National Association of Theaters (NATO) has released a statement in an attempt to help quell any concerns and reassuring that when cinemas open again that it’ll be a great time to be a movie fan. Here’s their statement (via Deadline):
“As with other businesses that serve large groups of people, movie theaters have faced voluntary and mandated restrictions and closures. The majority of movie theaters have now closed. This industry will continue to meet its responsibilities to the public and will abide by public health mandates and adapt to local conditions.
Our partners in movie distribution have postponed major new releases in response to the Coronavirus situation in markets around the world. Other titles beyond the immediate horizon have not changed their release dates.
Although there has been speculation in the media that the temporary closure of theaters will lead to accelerated or exclusive releases of theatrical titles to home streaming, such speculation ignores the underlying financial logic of studio investment in theatrical titles. To avoid catastrophic losses to the studios, these titles must have the fullest possible theatrical release around the world.
While one or two releases may forgo theatrical release, it is our understanding from discussions with distributors that the vast majority of deferred releases will be rescheduled for theatrical release as life returns to normal. When those titles are rescheduled, they will make for an even fuller slate of offerings than normal as they are slotted into an already robust release schedule later in the year.”
NATO’s statement makes it clear that as far as their concerned, these few quick-to-streaming and premium VOD cases are simply crisis maneuvers and once it is over things will return to normal.
