Blumhouse releasing Halloween Kills on Peacock and in theaters is a bad look after the success of Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings. The long-awaited sequel to 2018's Halloween, which itself was a reboot/sequel to John Carpenter's 1976 Halloween, was supposed to release in 2020 prior to the coronavirus pandemic. After nearing the end of a year-long delay though, it has been announced that Halloween Kills will release on Peacock the same day it launches in theaters next month.
Halloween Kills is hardly the first movie to receive a simultaneous release on streaming and in theaters. Warner Bros.' entire 2021 library has released this way thanks to HBO Max, and Disney brought Black Widow and Cruella to Disney+ via Premier Access. The rationale for these moves in the past was the lack of confidence in the box office and the willingness of people to see a movie in theaters during a pandemic. However, Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings proved this isn't the case. The movie outperformed all expectations and has widely been viewed as a sign that the box office is on the rise to a new level of normalcy.
NBCUniversal's decision to give Halloween Kills a streaming and theatrical release is one that makes some sense in general. The part about the move that is confusing, though, is the timing of this decision. Shang-Chi just crushed the Labor Day opening weekend record that Rob Zombie's Halloween held since 2007. With only a month to go until Halloween Kills' release date, announcing a streaming option for its release right now is a bad look. There is growing confidence that theatrical business is on the rise thanks to Shang-Chi and Free Guy, so the concern that Halloween Kills might not perform as expected doesn't work. That would make sense if the movie was moved to Peacock last year during the height of the pandemic, but the new release strategy feels out of place now given how well Shang-Chi performed at the box office.
Now that Halloween Kills has received a same-day Peacock release, though, what could be the reasoning for change? One possible explanation is that the studios are being cautious as COVID-19 cases surge due to the Delta variant. There is the chance that audience attendance dips as cases rise. 2018's Halloween was a box office hit after earning more than $250 million worldwide, so there would be an expectation that Halloween Kills matches or exceeds that total under normal circumstances. The Peacock release potentially minimizes the financial risk for the studio, since premium (paid) Peacock subscribers are the only ones who can access the sequel. But again, Shang-Chi's box office performance is a sign that IP can still succeed in the current theatrical landscape.
There will likely be some thought that Halloween Kills' early reviews could have impacted this decision too. The buzz has not been as overwhelmingly positive as David Gordon Green's 2018 movie received, and the Peacock release was announced only a few days later. But, that would be quite a reactionary response from the studio, especially since horror movies traditionally can withstand negative reviews and perform well at the box office. Regardless of the reason for Halloween Kills' release on Peacock, the point still stands that moving away from an exclusive theatrical launch doesn't make as much sense as Disney and Marvel watch Shang-Chi dominate the box office.
