Another week slips by (12 so far this year) on the new theatrical release front and there is little movement on the projected final outcome for the year.
The number keeps coming back 501, 502 and 502 again this week, with the top two box counts holding at 63 projected hit films for the industry to work with during the course of the year.
Again, the studios need to step up and redirect their streaming efforts to move the needle on the new theatrical release front if the status quo is to be broken.
On the good news front, director Chad Stahelski’s John Wick: Chapter IV (Lionsgate Home Entertainment) cruised to $73.8 million in its opening stanza and will certainly pull in well north of $100 million by the time its theatrical run closes out.
And, the directing/writing team of Scott Beck and Bryan Woods sci-fi thriller, 65 (Sony Pictures Home Entertainment) moved into the winner’s circle with $27.8 million in domestic ticket sales.
On the “helper” or “void-filler” front (remember, the term film pirate is so yesterday and so it is no longer used to described the activities of enterprising entrepreneurs), it was a field day for filling the void created by Disney Media and Entertainment when they skipped the home entertainment packaged media marketplace on Mar. 28 for director James Cameron’s Avatar: The Way of Water to focus, instead, on providing a 4K masters of the film — via streaming — to all of the eager Mickey Mouse helpers.
It is not for us to judge the strategy of that move, nor the reasoning behind foregoing DVD, Blu-ray or 4K Ultra HD product offerings for writer/director Zach Cregger’s Barbarian. It is unpresented that a film grossing $40 million is passed over for a streaming only release.
Just one more odd move on the part of Disney Media and Entertainment before moving on to other void-filling activity this past week. On Tuesday, Mar. 28, they dropped a newly minted 4K Ultra HD edition of the 1950 animated treasure, Cinderella. That’s major news, however there was no promotional drum-beating as the release was offered to Disney Movie Club members only.
Between Avatar: The Way of Water, Barbarian and Cinderella it would appear that Disney Media and Entertainment has adopted a strategy of suppressing home entertainment packaged media sales. That can’t be right, we are just not seeing the bigger picture of these latest moves … just observing.
Looking at the rest of the void-filling landscape this past week, Knock at the Cabin (Universal Pictures Home Entertainment) A Man Called Otto (Sony Pictures Home Entertainment) and Babylon (Paramount Home Entertainment) were among the “helper” Blu-ray releases recorded during the week (there were plenty more, but those were the ones of note).
They were not the only ones as DVD “void-filling” editions were served-up for 80 For Brady (Paramount Home Entertainment) and The Jesus Revolution (Lionsgate Home Entertainment).
Those are just the high profile new theatrical releases, but that’s not just the only targets that get “helper” oversight. For example, this past week alone, there were a whopping 267 theatrical catalog titles released on DVD (sound era thru 1996).
Only two, Fun City Editions’ Party Girl and VCI Entertainment’s restoration of director Mervyn LeRoy’s 1931 film release of Tonight or Never, starring Gloria Swanson, were the only legitimate releases on DVD. Granted, some of the theatrical catalog release activity saw product offerings drawn from films that have fallen into the public domain … most were not.
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