One of the most interesting stories from –horrified shudder—First third or more of the COVID-19 pandemic was the months-long rivalry between AMC and NBCUniversal that started when Universal announced that Trolls World Tour had done so well on on-demand platforms after losing its theatrical release that future Universal films would also potentially be leaving theaters even after the pandemic ended. AMC was so mad at this that he declared that no Universal film would ever be shown at an AMC cinema again, which Universal could not have cared less about, but a few months later, they reached an agreement involving shortened theatrical windows that apparently made everyone happy. Then, Disney started releasing movies directly on Disney + and Warner Bros. announced that its entire 2021 list would be released in theaters and on HBO Max simultaneously. Basically, while AMC was concerned about NBCUniversal’s turnaround in the traditional movie release model, the other big studios … overthrew the traditional movie release model.
Warner Bros. has been adamant that the HBO Max thing is a temporary solution designed to avoid further delays and give the few cinemas that have reopened in the US some new releases for display (a plan that kind of worked, actually), but now Disney CEO Bob Chapek is saying that he does not think the old way of releasing films will return. This came out during a question and answer session at the Morgan Stanley Technology, Media and Telecommunications Conferencethrough The wrap), with Chapek explaining that people have now become accustomed to “the luxury of an entire year of having titles at home practically when they want to”. He added that he does not want to “cut off the legs of a theatrical exhibition”, but it is clear that he is not convinced that people will still want it, now that they know the studios are willing and able to release great films online through their dedicated streaming platforms.
Meanwhile, how The wrap points out, we still don’t know if Disney will really commit to a traditional theater release just for Black Widow, which is scheduled for May 7 after being eliminated from 2020 by the pandemic. If Chapek takes it seriously that this is potentially the new status quo, it would be weird to let Marvel Studios keep the old way of doing things – though President Biden is now saying that the United States will have enough vaccines for every adult in the country by the end of May., so if Disney does follow the old model and time works, Black Widow could be the big “theaters are back!” film that Principle it should have been six months ago.