Original streaming movies have essentially become the direct-to-VHS of today, and if we're being honest it's been that way for quite a while. It seemed that Netflix had stopped producing big...
Original streaming movies have essentially become the direct-to-VHS of today, and if we're being honest it's been that way for quite a while. It seemed that Netflix had stopped producing big budget movies a few years ago and it just took a while for everyone else to catch up.
And it kind of makes sense; the attention economy demands serial content, so one-off movies don't really make much sense in the context of streaming services. If someone's going to go watch a movie for two hours, it has to be something they have a good amount of confidence that they'll enjoy it, and seeing it randomly show up in a menu of options doesn't quite cut the mustard. For instance, I would have never watched Roma if there wasn't so much buzz around it on other media.
One of the benefits of the industry noticing this is that it probably means that Pixar won't be stuck in Disney+ prison anymore. Turning Red was a fantastic movie, but it feels like nobody else on the planet has seen it! And even if Soul wasn't quite as good, it still deserved more attention than it got.
D'oh! I totally forgot that Elemental was a Pixar movie.
I liked Turning Red, but like Elemental I believe it had a very specific audience in mind. Whether having large global releases focus on non-general audiences is a good thing (financially) is a...
I liked Turning Red, but like Elemental I believe it had a very specific audience in mind. Whether having large global releases focus on non-general audiences is a good thing (financially) is a very interesting conversation, but probably a discussion for a different thread.
Soul was a very specific and poorly timed victim of unprecedented conditions. its release date was June 2020, an I'm sure by the time the pandemic hit that it was already distributing film to theatres and lining up critic viewings. Maybe delaying the film for a few years would have been the better move, but this was also in a time where Disney+ was aggressively charging into the streaming market. So they wanted any and all content while people were stuck inside.
But the true loser here was Raya. Not only thrown out of theaters, but a part of Disney's short lived experiment to make people subscribe to D+ and pay $30 on top of it. I think the movie is a bit overhated (but agree on it being a bit generic, with some odd character decisions), but that double dipping probably marred a lot of people's perceptions of the film.
Raya could have been a new favorite of mine if only it hadn't expected me to take a joke baby character seriously. But as it is, it's something I am occasionally reminded exists when I see it...
Raya could have been a new favorite of mine if only it hadn't expected me to take a joke baby character seriously. But as it is, it's something I am occasionally reminded exists when I see it represented in the form of merch at the gift shops in Disneyland.
After years of evidence, The Entertainment Strategy Guy (a leading industry analyst in the realm of streaming ratings) affirmed that theatrical films outperform straight-to-streaming originals. Even a box office bomb like “Lightyear” performed better on Disney+ than an acclaimed streaming title like “Chip and Dale: Rescue Rangers.”
“When we release a movie theatrically,” noted Paramount president of worldwide marketing and distribution Marc Weinstock in a previous conversation with TheWrap, “you make a cultural impact and that pays off in all the ancillary markets from home entertainment to streaming.”
“Studios can have their cake and eat it too with both a theatrical window and a streaming debut that garners strong viewership and maximum revenue potential,” Ashwin Navin, co-founder and CEO of Samba TV, told TheWrap.
Why let “Smile” just exist as a widget on Paramount+ when you can release it in theaters and have it gross $216 million worldwide? Ditto 20th Century Studio’s “The Boogeyman” and Warner Bros. Discovery’s “Evil Dead Rise.” Both were initially produced for streaming but got profitable theatrical releases instead.
Wall Street no longer rewards making streaming movies just to create streaming volume. Theatrical releases, even box office bombs like “Dungeons and Dragons,” generally outpace direct-to-consumer films in raw viewership while making a bigger mark in pop culture. Netflix and Amazon are making fewer overall movies while expanding their audience far beyond North America.
When streamers can choose between spending $100 million on a feature film or a season of television, the choice is that much clearer. Even Netflix gets more value out of third-party theatricals like “The Woman King” and YA-targeted cheapies like “The Kissing Booth” versus mega-bucks would-be blockbusters like “Glass Onion: A Knives Out Mystery.”
“Hollywood has perhaps realized that streaming movies don’t pay,” argued that industry executive. “Streaming the future of television and Blockbuster, which is what they replaced. Leave theatrical to theatrical.”"
Original streaming movies have essentially become the direct-to-VHS of today, and if we're being honest it's been that way for quite a while. It seemed that Netflix had stopped producing big budget movies a few years ago and it just took a while for everyone else to catch up.
And it kind of makes sense; the attention economy demands serial content, so one-off movies don't really make much sense in the context of streaming services. If someone's going to go watch a movie for two hours, it has to be something they have a good amount of confidence that they'll enjoy it, and seeing it randomly show up in a menu of options doesn't quite cut the mustard. For instance, I would have never watched Roma if there wasn't so much buzz around it on other media.
One of the benefits of the industry noticing this is that it probably means that Pixar won't be stuck in Disney+ prison anymore. Turning Red was a fantastic movie, but it feels like nobody else on the planet has seen it! And even if Soul wasn't quite as good, it still deserved more attention than it got.D'oh! I totally forgot that Elemental was a Pixar movie.
I liked Turning Red, but like Elemental I believe it had a very specific audience in mind. Whether having large global releases focus on non-general audiences is a good thing (financially) is a very interesting conversation, but probably a discussion for a different thread.
Soul was a very specific and poorly timed victim of unprecedented conditions. its release date was June 2020, an I'm sure by the time the pandemic hit that it was already distributing film to theatres and lining up critic viewings. Maybe delaying the film for a few years would have been the better move, but this was also in a time where Disney+ was aggressively charging into the streaming market. So they wanted any and all content while people were stuck inside.
But the true loser here was Raya. Not only thrown out of theaters, but a part of Disney's short lived experiment to make people subscribe to D+ and pay $30 on top of it. I think the movie is a bit overhated (but agree on it being a bit generic, with some odd character decisions), but that double dipping probably marred a lot of people's perceptions of the film.
Raya could have been a new favorite of mine if only it hadn't expected me to take a joke baby character seriously. But as it is, it's something I am occasionally reminded exists when I see it represented in the form of merch at the gift shops in Disneyland.