ViacomCBS has announced that all their major motion pictures will stream on their new Paramount+ app after a theatrical window. Paramount Pictures, which is owned by ViacomCBS, is one of the oldest studios in the business and owns the right to various IPs such as Star Trek, Transformers, and the entire Nickelodeon catalog, to name a few. Like its competitors in Disney, AT&T, and Comcast the studio has its own streaming service in the form of Paramount+.
Paramount+ is ViacomCBS's attempt at rebranding their struggling streaming service CBS All Access. They made a major promotional push during CBS's broadcast of Super Bowl LV, highlighting the various properties they own. The streaming service already has various Star Trek series and will exclusively premiere the upcoming SpongeBob: Sponge on the Run motion picture and the animated spin-off Kamp Koral: SpongeBob's Under Years. Paramount+ will see many major films from Paramount Pictures come to the service in a shortened theatrical window, hoping to draw more subscribers.
During ViacomCBS Investor Day call, Viacom CEO Bob Bakish announced that all Paramount movies will premiere on the new streaming service 30 to 45 days after premiering in theaters. This includes upcoming anticipated sequels like Top Gun Maverick, Mission: Impossible 7, and A Quiet Place 2. This appears to be the plan for all Paramount movies, from their major blockbuster to smaller films.
While streaming was always going to cause a shift in the distribution of films, the COVID-19 pandemic has accelerated the process with the various studios attempting to adapt. Disney has released some films such as Soul straight to the Disney+ app while putting other films like the upcoming Raya and the Last Dragon behind a $29.99 Premium Access feature. Universal Studios made a deal with the various theater chains to put their films onto VOD seventeen days after their theatrical release. Warner Bros. and their parent company AT&T made the biggest change by announcing all of their films for 2021 would release theatrically and on HBO Max on the same day. While Paramount is sticking to a theatrical model, the shortened theatrical window is another blow to movie theaters.
Unlike AT&T and Warner Bros., who made their announcement clear this would only be temporary for 2021, Paramount and parent company Viacom seem to indicate this could be the long-term plan for the studio moving forward, even after theaters open to full capacity. This means other major upcoming projects from Paramount like the sequel to Sonic the Hedgehog, any future Transformers films, or the next Star Trek film could be available to stream on Paramount+ just a month after the release. It was announced that New York City would be opening their theaters in March, and while some theaters across the country have opened up none of them can support full capacity while cities like Los Angelas still have no opening date for theaters announced and almost a year into the COVID-19 pandemic, it appears that studios are still figuring out how to adjust to an ever-changing marketplace.
Source: ViacomCBS