Jubilee Post News & Views
Special Desk
In a bid to revive cinema hall under tremendous pressure from covid, the Walt Disney has decided to delay streaming of its latest release for sometime and rather bring it to cinema halls directly.
The Hollywood giant Walt Disney Co has said its 2021 films will be released exclusively in cinemas before being made available for streaming on the OTT platforms.
The decision is a boost to struggling entertainment venues, with major films during the pandemic debuting online at the same time as in theatres. Marvel’s Eternals is among the films that will get a theatrical debut.
The decision comes after Disney’s successful theatrical release this month of Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings. Ten Rings – which tells the story of a former assassin forced to confront his power-hungry, warlord father – took in $127.6m globally in its first weekend in cinemas. The sum is second only to Marvel’s $158m takings for Black Widow in July.
With pandemic closing the cinema halls completely for the past over one year all the films made just before the pandemic were released on OTT platforms and some that had a little work left also got released on the same platform as industry opened for shoot after the first wave.
Different countries had different timings for closing industry both production and entertainment but one thing was common. The cinema halls were closed completely with the start of covid spread and later when opened only 50% capacity was allowed. This has brought financial crisis before the cinema owners.
Last month, Disney CEO Bob Chapek referred to the Ten Rings role out as an interesting experiment for us, given how all earlier films had been released online simultaneously with cinemas since the start of the pandemic. The film is being made available exclusively in cinemas for its first 45 days, before becoming watchable on the subscription Disney+ streaming platform.
The decision also comes after actress Scarlett Johansson sued Disney over their decision not to theatrically release Black Widow exclusively in cinemas.
