Most of the movie news of 2020 has been dominated by stories of films being delayed by months, quite a few opting to push back a full year from their original intended release.
Those delays aren’t just impacting the major studios films either with smaller film releases either ditching planned indie theatrical runs for quick jumps straight to streaming, or holding off for months like the major players with only the odd one or two braving a theatrical run at present.
This week Alberto Barbera, head of this year’s Venice Film Festival which is the first major fest with in-person screenings since the COVID-19 pandemic began, has issued a warning. Speaking to Cineuropa (via The Playlist), Barbera was asked about the lack of Hollywood studio films at not just Venice but all this year’s Fall film festivals. Barbera says he understands the reluctance but says continual delays could have major ramifications for the exhibition industry:
“I understand the concerns of producers that it is a risk to release their film when not all theatres are open. And a certain amount of people are afraid to go to the cinema. But I see another risk when we are waiting one more year to release a film because we need good films when the theatres are open again. The audience won’t have the stimulation to go to the cinema again after it spent months watching films on platforms at home. It is a risk to wait one more year in this particular situation.
Why should somebody be convinced to return to his old habits after one or one-and-a-half years and give up the commodity of watching films at home for a small amount of money? Most distributors are waiting for the good moment to release their films, but that is a risk which could damage the entire distribution system and especially the theatres.”
Cinemas need major films to attract audiences, but studios are scared to release them without a guarantee they’ll make their money back. This past weekend saw a test of those waters with “New Mutants” launching domestically and “Tenet” arriving internationally – earning hauls of a pretty dismal $7 million and above expectations $53 million respectively even with capacity restrictions.
Another test comes this weekend with both “Tenet” hitting U.S. cinemas and “Mulan” trying the PVOD route of ‘Premier Access’ via the Disney+ platform.