04/29/2020
Trolls: World Tour was supposed to be a one off attempt for straight to home release because of the crisis we are in. From the beginning, this looked liked Universal was using this crisis to their advantage to open a new revenue stream like they have been trying to do for 9 years since Tower Heist. The quote from Universal about releasing movies on both platforms is the scariest quote as that was my fear. But if AMC is going to boycott them, the rest of the big ones will hopefully follow and that is great. Making $100M is not the best news but they haven't factored in what this movie made/will make over its entire run. Also not considered is the advertising budget and the amount of lost revenue due to pirated views as there was a perfect copy released illegally hours after first available for buying.
Normally movies get released to cinemas for 4-6 weeks, then you have on demand rentals, then you have buys. It’s roughly a 3 month process from start to finish. You aren't going to see that with this movie because most people aren't going to watch it again whether rental or purchase on the same platform they just spent $20 on to watch it. So the buying cycle has changed. I would of thought this movie would have made at least $100M in the cinemas before rentals and purchases are factored in a normal cycle.
AMC Theaters says it will no longer screen films made by Universal Pictures — a serious escalation of a dispute over the merits of releasing movies in theaters before allowing the public to watch them online.
