cheryl
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Movie Theaters Are Screwed - Gizmodo
A long-standing debate about movies at home versus in the theater is reaching a tipping point. At the heart of the debate now is a public pissing match between AMC, one of the U.S.’s largest movie theater chain, and Universal Pictures, one of it largest production studios, over premium video on demand and theaters’ rights to exclusivity. Coronavirus has given studios an opportunity to bypass theaters entirely, and it’s triggered a fight that could change the way we see movies forever.
Netflix’s major content push over the last five years has led larger and more traditional studios to reconsider the streaming space they’ve repeatedly written off. Right now, people have more, high-quality content (and some very, very low-quality drivel) available to them at the click of a button. So studios have been snapping up or launching streaming services to host their created and licensed content.
Traditionally, movie theaters have had agreements with studios to allow the theaters to screen films for specific periods of time before studios put them on the small screen. If you want to see a movie without waiting for one or two months, you have to go see it in a theater. But the coronavirus crisis has created a situation where that is no longer possible. Instead, studios are experimenting with offering their films directly to consumers at home at premium prices—which, if allowed to continue post-covid-19, would devastate the theater industry.
A long-standing debate about movies at home versus in the theater is reaching a tipping point. At the heart of the debate now is a public pissing match between AMC, one of the U.S.’s largest movie theater chain, and Universal Pictures, one of it largest production studios, over premium video on demand and theaters’ rights to exclusivity. Coronavirus has given studios an opportunity to bypass theaters entirely, and it’s triggered a fight that could change the way we see movies forever.
Netflix’s major content push over the last five years has led larger and more traditional studios to reconsider the streaming space they’ve repeatedly written off. Right now, people have more, high-quality content (and some very, very low-quality drivel) available to them at the click of a button. So studios have been snapping up or launching streaming services to host their created and licensed content.
Traditionally, movie theaters have had agreements with studios to allow the theaters to screen films for specific periods of time before studios put them on the small screen. If you want to see a movie without waiting for one or two months, you have to go see it in a theater. But the coronavirus crisis has created a situation where that is no longer possible. Instead, studios are experimenting with offering their films directly to consumers at home at premium prices—which, if allowed to continue post-covid-19, would devastate the theater industry.