Studios Hold Out Hope for Theaters’ Return to Normalcy
Jackie Strause
Studios Hold Out Hope for Theaters’ Return to Normalcy Illustration by Jan Feindt
Despite more delays, don’t expect Hollywood studios to abandon ship and offload their most precious cargo — event tentpoles. They’re still willing to wait for a proper theatrical run, and are hopeful that COVID-19 vaccines may calm the waters and allow moviegoing to resume in earnest by fall, if not late summer.
Throughout the pandemic, the vast majority of big-budget event pics have seen their releases repeatedly pushed back amid ongoing theater closures in major markets and other locales, versus being sold off to a streamer or sent to an in-house streaming service. That’s because a $200 million movie capable of earning $1 billion at the global box office cannot achieve its full financial potential without a robust theatrical release, which triggers lucrative ancillary streams, merchandising and sequels.