Holding online movie releases on streaming services many film studios have continued to profit during the pandemic, but will not be sustainable due to excess fees to watch the movies.
While many films have been pushed into mid- to late 2021 for a traditional theater release, some studios have decided to release new movies on streaming services.
The September release of Disney’s live-action “Mulan” drummed up controversy because of the $30 fee to watch the movie, released exclusively on Disney Plus, on top of the subscription fees for the service.
Amazon Prime Video had a similar release for the movie “Emma” in March. There was a $20 fee to rent the movie for 48 hours, on top of the fees for Amazon Prime.
When “Wonder Woman 1984” premiered on HBO Max, it was only available for one month after that date. The service itself costs $14.99 per month.
With the plethora of streaming services that are available, releasing movies on all of these different platforms and expecting to maintain the same audience as in theaters is unrealistic.
There are many television shows that are also debuting exclusively on these services too, so expecting to watch the latest shows and movies means paying a fortune in subscriptions.
With networks like CBS and NBC forming their own streaming services, popular media is lost from other services. The purpose of streaming was to move away from the traditional cable plans and make movies/TV shows more accessible for a lower cost. With every network having their own service, watching TV and movies becomes expensive again.
Turning every new movie release into an exclusive will become more of a hassle for the consumer and ultimately be costly when they decide to prioritize which services they subscribe to.
This can cause less people to watch a movie than they would have originally, because they do not want to deal with the fees and management of different subscriptions.
By continuing to release movies in theaters, people do not have to make these decisions and can simply decide to go see a movie when they want to, without all of the extra costs.
According to Variety, many studios do not expect to continue with only streaming movies and have been pushing their release dates so they can have a proper theater debut.
This is good news for small movie theaters that have been struggling with the pandemic. According to the New York Times, theater chains like AMC have come close to bankruptcy, and the pandemic has damaged smaller theaters just as much.
By continuing the traditional movie theater releases, small theaters will continue to thrive and be a part of their community as well as give moviegoers freedom from excess streaming fees.