Another week slips by (12 so far this year) on the
new theatrical release front and there is little movement on the projected
final outcome for the year.
The number keeps coming back 501, 502 and 502 again
this week, with the top two box counts holding at 63 projected hit films for
the industry to work with during the course of the year.
Again, the studios need to step up and redirect their
streaming efforts to move the needle on the new theatrical release front if the
status quo is to be broken.
On the good news front, director Chad Stahelski’s John
Wick: Chapter IV (Lionsgate Home Entertainment) cruised
to $73.8 million in its opening stanza and will certainly pull in well north of
$100 million by the time its theatrical run closes out.
And, the directing/writing team of Scott Beck and Bryan
Woods sci-fi thriller, 65
(Sony Pictures Home Entertainment) moved into the winner’s circle with $27.8
million in domestic ticket sales.
On the “helper” or “void-filler” front (remember,
the term film pirate is so yesterday and so it is no longer used to described
the activities of enterprising entrepreneurs), it was a field day for filling the
void created by Disney Media and Entertainment when they skipped the home
entertainment packaged media marketplace on Mar. 28 for director James Cameron’s
Avatar: The Way of Water to
focus, instead, on providing a 4K masters of the film — via streaming — to all
of the eager Mickey Mouse helpers.
It is not for us to judge the strategy of that move,
nor the reasoning behind foregoing DVD, Blu-ray or 4K Ultra HD product
offerings for writer/director Zach Cregger’s Barbarian. It is unpresented that a film grossing $40
million is passed over for a streaming only release.
Just one more odd move on the part of Disney Media
and Entertainment before moving on to other void-filling activity this past
week. On Tuesday, Mar. 28, they dropped
a newly minted 4K Ultra HD edition of the 1950 animated treasure, Cinderella. That’s major news, however there was no
promotional drum-beating as the release was offered to Disney Movie Club
members only.
Between Avatar: The Way of Water, Barbarian and Cinderella
it would appear that Disney Media and Entertainment
has adopted a strategy of suppressing home entertainment packaged media
sales. That can’t be right, we are just
not seeing the bigger picture of these latest moves … just observing.
Looking at the rest of the void-filling landscape
this past week, Knock at the Cabin
(Universal Pictures Home Entertainment) A Man
Called Otto (Sony Pictures Home Entertainment)
and Babylon
(Paramount Home Entertainment) were among the “helper” Blu-ray releases
recorded during the week (there were plenty more, but those were the ones of
note).
They were not the only ones as DVD “void-filling” editions
were served-up for 80 For Brady
(Paramount Home Entertainment) and The Jesus Revolution (Lionsgate
Home Entertainment).
Those are just the high profile new theatrical
releases, but that’s not just the only targets that get “helper”
oversight. For example, this past week
alone, there were a whopping 267 theatrical catalog titles released on DVD (sound
era thru 1996).
Only two, Fun City Editions’ Party
Girl and VCI Entertainment’s restoration of director
Mervyn LeRoy’s 1931 film release of Tonight
or Never, starring Gloria Swanson, were
the only legitimate releases on DVD.
Granted, some of the theatrical catalog release activity saw product
offerings drawn from films that have fallen into the public domain … most were
not.