Black Widow and Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings will get a hybrid release this year. Now Disney CEO, Bob Chapek defends streaming release for both tentpole movies. Of course as current CEO the decision ultimately fell to Chapek in the first place. However Chapek continued to defend the move on Monday at a virtual summit hosted by JP Morgan. Speaking with those in attendance (via Deadline) at the Global Technology, Media and Communications Conference, Chapek admitted the company still feels the box office is “fairly weak,” ergo the hybrid release.
“One of the things we learned is that flexibility is good,” Chapek said during the panel. “We’re really celebrating that flexibility…we’re trying to offer consumers more choice.”
Black Widow will be added to Disney+ as a Premiere Access offering, allowing people to purchase it to add to their Disney+ library and watch it immediately at home. The current plan is for Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings to follow suit.
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“We’re trying to monitor, ‘Are consumers ready to go back into theaters?'” the executive said earlier this month.. “Of course, let’s say 90% of the domestic marketplace is open right now. And we’re encouraged in terms of polling in terms of that growing going forward, but if you look at last weekend’s box office for an example and you compare it versus an average of the last three years of pre-COVID box office, it was 85% low domestically and 67% below internationally.”
“In terms of going beyond this fiscal year, we’ve not announced exactly what our strategy is going to be in terms of which titles will be theatrical plus Disney Premier Access, which ones will be direct to Disney+, or which ones will go into theaters,” Chapek said, “but know that we’ll continue to watch the evolution of the recovery of the theatrical marketplace and we’ll use that flexibility to make the right call at the right time.”
I’m all for it, but I understand a lot of fans would rather see new films in theatres. I’m betting we won’t have these hybrid releases much past this year and things will get back to ‘normal’. Or at least, closer to what we had before than we do right now. What do you think of all this as Bob Chapek defends a streaming release for Black Widow and Shang-Chi? Leave any thoughts below if you can.
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