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Director Emerald Fennell is happy to see the audience’s reaction to her revenge thriller Promising young woman It will be screened for the first time at the Sundance Film Festival in early 2020.
“You apply pressure and then release the pressure, the people in the room [understanding] Fennell’s acceptance of sex politics earned her an Oscar for best original screenplay. “A lot of filmmaking techniques… They are riding it there. You make a movie because it is a public experience.”
But it turns out that very few people end up watching movies in cinemas. On April 17th last year, the planned first appearance of the drama in the United States was cancelled because of the forced closure of the venue by Covid-19. Promising young woman It was finally released in theaters on Christmas Day 2020, and earned $13.3 million in revenue. Although trivial, it is still the highest-grossing film All movies Was nominated in this year’s Academy Awards for Best Picture.
A few weeks later, on January 15th, the movie can be rented at home through premium video on demand (PVOD). The format has been released for ten years, but due to the pandemic, movie screenings stopped, so it gained new meaning last year.In addition to any regular monthly rental fees, subscribers of platforms such as Amazon Prime, Sky’s Now player and Apple’s iTunes can also rent Promising young woman About 20 dollars.
With the $40 billion U.S. box office facing Uncertain future,journey Promising young womanExecutives from NBCUniversal, an in-house art studio focused on United Broadcasting Corporation Comcast and the film distributor, Focus Focus, said the release of the film could serve as a template for independent films in the post-pandemic world.
“Donna [Langley, chair of Universal Pictures] Decided to stop production on the first day of the pandemic, we will go to PVOD, a week later, we will be there to receive services. “Focus Feature chairman Peter Kujawski said, referring to many of the other films released in this way in the past year.
“Once there was a wish to discover [if it] It works [strategy] And Donna. . . I feel strongly that now is not only a good time to watch a movie, but also a good time for the entire enterprise. “
During the pandemic, early housing rental is a necessary experiment.but As the U.S. reopens After the theater has been vacant for a year, executives across the entertainment industry are questioning whether the industry has changed forever.
Most people agree that once the crisis is relieved, large-scale budget movies will still be shown in cinemas despite the shorter theater window. However, movies with smaller budgets do not need to make hundreds of millions of dollars in box office break-even, and may gradually become a home experience, perhaps being shown in the cinema for a few days and then shown in the living room via PVOD.
Kujawski said: “You will see a world where everyone will become more cautious about the development of movie theaters.” “The key determinants of drama are scale and budget.”
Universal Pictures took the lead in realizing this transformation, providing rental services for the following movies: Invisible person with Emma After the cinema closed.
Jeff Bock, a box office analyst at Exhibitor Relations, said that PVOD became the “lifeline of film studios” last year, especially for independent films that may be “lost in the ether.” [of streaming]”.
Promising young woman: a large number of popular independent releases
Alone: Watching the new album has changed from an initial public experience to an experience that can be enjoyed at home
$13.3 million
Cinema box office
$20
Approximate rent when the movie first goes live
However, he cautioned that without the studio’s largely unreserved revenue figures, it would be difficult to measure the success of the strategy. “What we can really do is monitor what distributors do in the future, because actions speak louder than words.”
Universal Pictures’ move to break the traditional “window” between film premieres and online has been dismissed by film owners who have spent many years. Fiercely protecting their lineup New versions from streaming platforms such as Netflix.
However, the two largest chain companies, AMC and Cinemark, have reached an agreement with Universal Pictures to allow film studios to distribute movies through PVOD only a few weeks after they are released in theaters in exchange for a certain amount of household sales.
At the same time, the independent cinema chain Alamo Drafthouse filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection in March, and it took another step forward after launching its own PVOD platform last year.
Even if Focus puts other movies on the Internet through PVOD, there are internal debates about whether Promising young woman, This film designed to arouse the emotions of gender relations may, to a large extent, arouse cultural buzz through online distribution.
“We really do want traditional theatrical distribution,” Fennell said. “Of course, when you make something that is designed for a certain purpose, then you will view it in a different way… It will take a minute to readjust.”
Focus executives decided to wait to see how other Universal Films performed and postpone the release until Christmas.
A year later, the company declared its success financially and culturally. With a budget of $10 million, Promising young woman Has profited from box office revenue. People close to the company said that the release of PVOD made the film more profitable and made up for the drop in box office revenue.
Focus declined to say how many PVOD sales the movie has. People familiar with the matter said, however, the total revenue multiple calculated by multiplying the total sales revenue for the first week was the highest of all PVOD issuances of Universal last year.
“You have the metrics, and you want every movie to be shown, make money, make money and trade,” Kujawski said. “But everyone is concerned about the softer indicators of cultural influence. And see [PVOD] Distributing movies in this way is the key, because it is not the case. “
Oscar-winning director Emerald Fennell: “For me, all I want to do is write something first, and then figure out where it lives” ©AMPAS / Getty
He added that the higher rental price makes the movie unique, otherwise the movie might be lost in the sea of streaming. “When you decide to spend $20 to watch something, instead of getting something through an algorithm, it’s a precious thing.”
The main disadvantage of the PVOD model is simple economics: for large-scale movies, it is not as profitable as theaters. Imax CEO Rich Gelfond said at a conference last year that PVOD is a “failed experiment.”
He said: “Numbers don’t play a role in a pandemic, so how do they work in a non-pandemic?” He pointed out that studios are reluctant to share revenue figures.
But there are signs that even for blockbuster films, PVOD still exists.Disney (Disney), watching movies, etc. charge $30 Hua Mulan Released on its streaming platform at the same time as the movie theaters, these will be the two largest summer movies produced by the company. Black widow with Crurea, Can be rented on the same day they show the movie.
For creative talents, the streaming battle between the world’s largest entertainment companies is largely welcomed because it means an endless demand for content, no matter where people end up watching it.
Fennell said she has subscribed to “probably every streaming service” and she is working on cross-media projects, from West End stage performances to TV shows and movies.
She said: “For me, what I want to do is to write something first, and then figure out where it lives.” “Sometimes you want to make something epic in the theater. Sometimes you want to make something digestible. Now The really great thing is anything meaningful.”
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