It’s hard to remember now, but just before the 2010s started— when Avatar rejuvenated the box-office and the Marvel Cinematic Universe’s successes fueled Disney’s industry-saving box-office renaissance—there were a lot of conversations about what the future of filmgoing might look like, and many believed the “going to the theater” part of it was on its way out.
HDTVs were everywhere, DVD still ruled, Blu-Ray was just dropping, and going to the theater was mostly just a giant pain in the ass, what with the high prices, the poor exhibition quality, and of course, the people—the phone checking, loud-talking, food-spilling people. In the time of COVID, it’s hard to imagine anyone would consider the prospect of paying Regal or Cinemark over $10 a pop to spend two hours in a roomful of that as a privilege. It sounds more like the sort of trap the villain of a Saw movie might lay.
All the major theater chains have closed their operations indefinitely as the COVID crisis stretches out. So what are the movie studios doing? Making those 2008 conversations fresh and new again: Universal Pictures will allow customers to spend $14-20 to rent Emma, The Invisible Man, and The Hunt for 48 hours starting Friday, March 20 (click each title to read our reviews!). They’re premiering Trolls: World Tour in the same way on Fri, April 10. Warner Bros. is hoping to give Harley Quinn: Birds of Prey a new lease on life after (unfairly) disappointing at the box-office by putting her on VOD Tues, March 24. Sony opened Vin Diesel’s Bloodshot last Friday but last Friday basically doesn’t count, so most people will get their first real crack at it Tues, March 24 on VOD. Hollywood’s 800lb. Gorilla/Tyrannosaur/Unicron-hybrid Disney hasn’t announced whether they’re getting in on this, but they did make sure to put Frozen II on their Disney+ platform months early, and released Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker digitally a couple days ahead of schedule as well.
