ENTERTAINMENT
Lights Out What impact will new approaches to digital content distribution on the ground have on the in-flight entertainment marketplace?
At the height of coronavirus shelter-inplace directives this spring, streaming at home proved to be so hugely popular that Netflix, Amazon Prime Video and YouTube actually reduced their video playback quality in the European Union to help ease the burden on the region’s Internet infrastructure. The situation on the global theatrical front, however, was a much tougher fix. Opening on March 6 in the US, Disney-Pixar’s Onward had the unique distinction of hitting two lows in the animation studio’s recent history: It had both the worst opening weekend numbers and the worst 10-day opening ever. But the film’s protagonists, the Lightfoot brothers, were hardly alone in their misery. The crushing economic impact of the coronavirus on the industry was exacerbated when theaters in most major markets closed and US box-office tallies virtually zeroed out for the first time in Hollywood history. Upcoming major studio releases like A Quiet Place Part II, Black Widow, the latest James Bond entry No Time to Die and the live-action Mulan reboot were pushed to mid-summer, fall and, in some cases, even to next year. With film fans homebound, a new plan of action that turned the long-standing 90-day theatrical-to-home rental release window on its head was also needed. Studios began embracing everything from early releases on video on demand (VOD) – for films like The Invisible Man, Emma, The Hunt and Onward, which hit the VOD market two weeks after it opened in theaters and the studio’s subscription streaming platform, Disney+, two 30
experience
| V10 E3 | APEX.AERO
weeks after that – to ticket sales for film screenings at “virtual cinemas” hosted on indie theater websites. Some even began to forgo domestic theatrical releases entirely, as was the case for Universal-Dreamworks’ $90-plus-million Trolls sequel, Trolls World Tour, which had a limited theater release on April 6 and was available for digital rental the same day. And just like that, the future of digital distribution was suddenly wide open. But Universal-Dreamworks’ leap was not without consequence: AMC Theatres responded by saying it would stop screening the studio’s films altogether. Meanwhile, the movie raked in $100 million in rental fees after having
“Whichever distribution model the entertainment community embraces moving forward, it will need to recoup massive investments.” KATE GROTH, WEST ENTERTAINMENT
PHOTO: FELIX MOONEERAM, UNSPLASH
BY TOMÁS ROMERO
