Blumhouse founder Jason Blum thinks the movie business will look very different after the coronavirus. Over the last decade, Blum has evolved into one of the most successful (and prolific) producers in Hollywood thanks to his production company's low-budget model. While Blumhouse is still best known for their horror movie franchises like Insidious and The Purge, they've also released Oscar-winning dramas like Whiplash and BlacKkKlansman, in addition to director-driven offerings from names like Jordan Peele and M. Night Shyamalan. In other words, he's someone who very much has their thumb on the pulse of the larger film industry.
Like everyone else, Blum has had to adjust his company's plans for 2020 in response to the COVID-19 outbreak in recent weeks. With theaters closing down across the world, studios have started making their current theatrical releases (including, Blumhouse's The Invisible Man and The Hunt) available to people self-quarantining at home to watch much earlier than usual. But in spite of statements from multiple executives assuring they plan to return to business as usual once the pandemic has been contained, Blum suspects that won't be the case - not entirely, anyway.
In an interview with The Daily Wire to discuss The Hunt, Blum admitted he suspects all the recent early on-demand releases will cause the theater to home release window to shrink even further once things return to normal in Hollywood. Here are his exact words on the topic:
"I think it’s not realistic to think all the studios are going to wait four months before they put a movie at home. They just can’t compete, they’re going to have to compete with Amazon and Netflix and Apple in a different way. There’s going to be shifts. The consumer is going to be more used to staying at home. Something is going to give, there has to be something that’s going to happen post-corona. The movie business will look different after the coronavirus."
At the same time, Blum told The Daily Wire he doesn't think theaters are ever going to go away, saying:
"The collective experience of going to a theater and taking in a movie, I think that’s going to be around for a long time. I think there’ll be less movies in theaters, there’ll be less of a selection, or I should say, there’ll be many many fewer movies in theaters with the window, and I think there’ll be many many more movies in theaters, but they only last for a week or two."
Blum is probably right about the coronavirus having a permanent impact on the way studios release their films moving forward. The industry was already headed in that direction before the pandemic, with the customary window between a movie's theatrical run and release on the home market having shrunken down to a few months over the last ten years, largely due to competition from streaming platforms like Netflix and Amazon. Yet, to quote Blum directly, streaming simply doesn't offer the "collective experience" of watching a film in a theater, and that's something audiences will be craving all the more once the coronavirus has been fully contained and theaters re-open for business. The National Association of Theater Owners are anticipating as much, having released a statement saying the vast majority of recently delayed March, April, and May movies are still expected to release in theaters before hitting the home market.
Naturally, there are already exceptions like Paramount's rom-com The Lovebirds, which is moving straight to Netflix after being delayed from its original date in April. Warner Bros. reportedly even considered sending Wonder Woman 1984 straight to VOD before announcing it will receive a theatrical run at some point in the future (assuming it's delayed from its June release date, as many expect it to be). But for most studios, theaters are an important part of how they cover the costs of their biggest tentpoles and they can't make up the difference with VOD grosses alone, so going straight to streaming simply isn't a realistic option. Still, as Blum pointed out in this interview, it's hard to imagine how the movie business won't be affected by everything that's happened in the coronavirus crisis so far.
Source: The Daily Wire [via JoBlo]