Good good good. Here’s who else jumps on the “hybrid” launch strip.
Conformable more socketsDisney-owned Searchlight Pictures has announced that it will release its next film Nomadland on Hulu on the same day as its theatrical release on February 19, a few weeks after the film debuted in IMAX on January 29th. That means yet another studio is taking the controversy HBO approach Max to move from the line between offering movies to cinemas at a time when no one is going to theaters and simply launching those movies into a streaming service to help get subscribers.
Directed by Chloé Zhao Nomadland, with the main role Frances McDormand, it has already garnered significant critical acclaim and managed to resume more prominent awards during its festival. It focuses on a character named Fern who, following an economic crisis in a rural area of Nevada, explores the life of a nomad from the American West.
While Disney has insisted that the Disney + platform is not just a service for children, Hulu remains the logical home for independent releases and adult dramas. And it’s not necessarily a surprise that Disney decided to release a pre-scheduled movie for a theatrical release on one of its services – it was done as a a handful of times already with movies like Mulan on Disney +. But using a hybrid launch model for such a critical darling seems like a strange move from an experienced studio like Disney, especially because fall out of HBO Max’s decision to use a double release for all of his 2021 movies was quick.
The problem with this specific type of launch in the middle is that it is not a particularly big problem for theaters, which are based on – or bet on, rather, in earlier times – exclusive launch windows to attract customers who pay on the spot in their auditoriums. Not a great result for film producers, who probably wanted their films to be experienced in cinemas. And it’s not a fantastic prospect to maintain excellent relationships with talent, on which, of course, the studios rely to make films.
It is, however, great for consumers who would rather not pay anything for immediate access to a movie through a service they already subscribe to. It’s also not a bad deal for people who would rather sign up for a new job to broadcast a movie at home than be in a public space, such as a movie theater during a pandemic. In addition, who wants to pay ticket fees per head, when the whole family can broadcast a movie from the comfort of their own living room?
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But it feels great that studios are setting a new normal at a time when cinemas I’m not in a good position to make requests. And if we have cinemas to return to in a post-pandemic world, they will have to be able to keep the lights on until then.