One of the more interesting stories of the –terrified shiver– the first third or so of the COVID-19 pandemic was the months-long dispute between AMC and NBCUniversal that began when Universal announced that Trolls World Tour performed so well on platforms on demand after losing its play, that future Universal films might also hit theaters, even after the pandemic ended. AMC was so angry about this that it declared that no universal film would ever play in an AMC theater again, for which Universal could not care less, but a few months later they reached an agreement with shortened theater windows that apparently made everyone happy. Then Disney started dropping movies on Disney +, and Warner Bros. announces that the entire 2021 slate will be released simultaneously in theaters and on HBO Max. Actually, while AMC was concerned about the NBCUniversal raising the traditional model for the release of the film, the other major studios released the traditional model of the film.
Warner Bros. is determined that the HBO Max thing is a temporary solution to avoid further delays and show the few theaters reopened in the US new versions (a plan that actually worked), but now Disney CEO Bob Chapek says he does not think the old way of releasing movies is coming back. This was stated during a Q&A session at the Morgan Stanley Technology, Media, and Telecommunications Conference (via The wrap), with Chapek explaining that people have now become accustomed to ‘the luxury of a whole year of getting titles at home if they want to’. He added that he does not want to cut down a theater exhibition, but it is clear that he is not convinced that people will want it even more, now that they know that the studios are willing and able to release great films online set by their dedicated streaming platforms.
Meanwhile, as The wrap point out, we still do not know if Disney will really commit to a traditional release for theater Black widow, planned for May 7 after the 2020 pandemic hit. If Chapek is serious about possibly being the new status quo, it’s going to be weird to get Marvel Studios to stick to the old way of doing things – though President Biden now says that by the end of May, the US will have enough vaccines for every adult in the country, so as Disney do stick to the old model and the timing works out, Black widow can the big “theaters are back!” movie what Tenet was supposed to be six months ago.