Just to get your opinions on and preferences for the release strategy for NTTD which is obviously going to be tricky.
0 voters
Good poll, SAF!
Like everyone, i imagine, iād prefer it to premiere in the cinema and of course the sooner the better, but November isnāt a deal breaker. I donāt think Eon should be held to another delay = streaming.
Eon will release it as soon as itās safe, no sooner, no later and iām happy to wait.
One caveatā¦ Is it crazy to suggest that fans who get the virus get a special isolation screening on request, in case they kick the bucket. Morbid, but i recall the Star Wars folk doing it for a tragically ill individual once. Probably the last thing on someoneās mind in an ICU unit, but nevertheless, it would be a sweet thing for Eon to do (if ever asked).
With no end in sight to the crisis, and these movies that have been delayed almost certainly facing another delay into 2021, my suggestion would be a multi-tier release:
Theaters where itās possible. China might be able to pull this off, as well as some of the other Asian countries where theyāve managed to tamp down their outbreaks and resume something that resembles normal life.
Second option would be a streaming option that would fall somewhere between $20 and $30, and then a third option that would be just skipping straight ahead to the 4K UHD / Blu-ray release that would be an option at around $60-$70 for the first 3-4 months after the filmās āreleaseā. After which that price would drop back down to the usual $30 (4K), $25 (Blu-ray), and $15-$20 (DVD) ranges that we see on a normal home release.
With both of the other options, both the cinemas and the studio would get their usual cut. Assuming a typical trip to the theater for an individual costs between $20 and $30, everyone would get their cut out of the streaming cost and then, using those same figures and then tacking on the usual $30 price tag of a 4K release, the cinemas, studios, and distributors would still get their cut out of a straight-to-physical-media release as well, which would be a reasonable option for those that donāt have solid enough internet connections to deliver an acceptable viewing experience in the home via streaming.
Honestly, there wonĀ“t be any cinema release this year that will bring in the numbers any big budget film needs to be successful. Unless there will be a cure or something that can prevent people from getting severely sick, most audiences will stay away from cinemas IF these are reopened at all, until 2021.
So, every postponed release date actually is just a way to delay the ultimate decision what to do with these movies.
Of course, every one of these could be held back until the crisis is over and usual attendance is back. Every unreleased movie from 2020 will be new in 2021 or 2022 as well, these things do not have an expiration date. And the depicted behavior, if anachronistic, will even have that extra kick of being a nice time capsule from simpler times.
But the release of any big budget movie is also tied to a number of factors which might accelerate any release strategy. MGM, for example, needs to have money coming in from Bond this year. Maybe, with the whole world on pause, the banks will begrudgingly have to wait for all the loans to be paid back, and maybe that could allow for a delay into 2021.
However, as a recent article in THR stated, many studios will see this crisis as a perfect excuse to shrink the window between cinema release and home video release even further. For years the idea was floated that every release could be simultaneously released, for a premium price of course, as a combination of cinema ticket and dvd/streaming. I would not be surprised if thatās exactly what the studios are now aiming for.
It could also mean a return to the kind of platform release of earlier times when movies (not just the arthouse fare) would play at first in a few selected big city cinemas and then, having built word of mouth, go to the rest of the country.
However, this might not be feasible in our age of streaming when everything can be made available with one click on your remote. Especially not since these big blockbuster films are so damn costly that they need the first huge weekend with across the country saturation in every cinema.
In other words: to roll out Bond just in a few big cities and then wait for the grosses to trickle in during the next six months is just taking too long. And in the meantime piracy will have made the movie available on the internet anyway.
So, IMO, it only makes sense to go the streaming route immediately. I donāt want to spoil anyoneās optimism but it just is not realistic to think that in November cinemas around the world or even in the biggest markets will be open again in big enough numbers to give MGM the needed box office.
In contrast, releasing NTTD in November on-demand for a raised price (think 30 or 40 dollars) would probably work out much better for higher returns. Or MGM will give NTTD to Apple so they can boost their streaming model (which still lags behind Netflix, Disney+ and Amazon Prime), and rumor has it Apple already had started to negotiate for the exclusive streaming rights for previous Bond films.
In any event, I do not expect NTTD to open in November, nor to have TOP GUN 2 go out in the Christmas season.
Unless the meds arrive and make all of this speculation unnecessary. Which I would absolutely HOPE.
Tbh, I think putting these films onto streaming platforms now creates a different problem when cinemas do reopen as itās not just releases that have been rescheduled, but actually making the films. If you release everything made onto streaming now, there will be no films to put into cinemas when they actually can open.
Regardless of what the studios do now with their films, they are still going to be entering a perilous period when people around the globe are able to go out and get out from under this. The old days of people packing into crackerbox screening rooms like we see at our standard multiplexes is essentially over after this pandemic. The world that people we be going back into will be different from the one that we left in the last couple of weeks. I would imagine that drive-in theaters are going to make a major comeback when itās all said and done.
But, when you have a studio like MGM, who essentially survives off of the profits from Bond, they have to do something in order to survive. There wonāt be a time anytime in the next year to a year and a half where they will get their optimal global release of NO TIME TO DIE. Theyāre not going to make the billion-plus that SKYFALL made. At this point, an optimistic estimate wouldnāt even get them to anywhere near SPECTREās roughly $800 million.
On the one hand, we may be headed back into a world where smaller movies can survive at the box office rather than every film needing to be a superhero film or a bigger-than-the-last sequel in order to get any play. Film budgets, as a result of this, will probably come back down to earth after the last couple of Bond films reportedly approached $300 million, because the revenue for so long isnāt going to be anywhere near as high as it once was.
That is the consequence, yes.
But the question is whether film production can start again earlier (since it is a controlled environment) than the opening of the cinemas (you cannot check every audience member for signs of the disease).
For the studios to start putting films into production they, however, need money. And if the release of the finished films which were supposed to be released in 2020 can bring in money otherwise, the cinemas will not be impacted by that.
Just as a theoretical thought: if you can release NTTD in 2020 on a streaming platform to keep the money rolling in you can use it for producing the next Bond to arrive for cinemas to reopen in late 2021.
Absolutely true. I already got asked by a producer whether I have ideas for a film that can be made in one location with little money - because thatās what will be green lighted at first.
I just hope that whatever they do allows anyone that wants to see it to do so without huge cost and without a tiered release, charging more at first, then diminishing over time/platform.
My fear is that by the time many get the opportunity to see it, the reviews and spoilers are rife and unavoidable.
Plus, as soon as itās released on any platform itāll be pirated by someone, somewhere and that will suck much of the profit that may have come from the following tiers of release, since many wonāt wait and wonāt pay if they can get it another way for free.
Having relatively large UHD TV, Blu-ray home theater system and fast unlimited internet connection myself, I personally donāt need to visit cinemas anymore. It may sound silly but I like watching movies laying on my couch. Even blockbusters. So Iād love No Time To Die to be released on streaming and/or straight to (exclusive) Blu-ray.
However, keep in mind that all options mentioned above are possible only in few most developed countries. US, Canada, UK, Australia, some EU countries - sure, why not. But decent internet connection is not as common as you may think globally, most streaming services are unavailable in most countries (even in Poland there is no Disney+ yet), and, most of all, 50-70$ is A LOT of money for MOST people in the world and noone, outside those countries, would pay this much for a movie.
Iām no expert on streaming service market, but I canāt see a 300+ mln $ budget mobile to be profitable when released on line.
One factor that may make streaming too tough a pill for Eon et al to swallow is the huge imax investment they made in this. Thatās more or less money down the drain if this isnāt seen on the big screen. Even a non imax big screen would capitalise on it a little Iām guessing, whereas home theatre will surely not make any real difference clear to the viewer.
Yesā¦IMAX, that raises another practical quality that puts Black Widow and No Time To Die in different positions - the format on which theyāve been made. NTTD is on physical film, something that will need digitised before it can be moved to streaming services, not a small task with IMAX film stock, and a task that actually requires staff; staff they canāt hire because of social distancing. Black Widow, as far as Iām aware, follows on from its MCU predecessors in being filmed digitally (I gather thatās more a practical element of the sheer number of digital effects needed on an MCU movie) so will not need digitised separately for home media.
āAssume we have the budget of an 80ās multi camera sitcom.ā
Genuine note for rewrites I got.
Nostalgia is back big time!
Bond 26 will scale back and go back to Fleming. Just one location: Mās office. Bond fighting for his pension!
In all seriousness, Iād love another lower key detective thriller like Dr No.
As the years pass, I realise just how good that movie is. A work of art, honestly.
I would like to see NTTD on the big screen in November 2019. Or February 2020. Whoops!
What a fiasco. An absolute hash job. Iāve gone through the steps of grieving - rage, bargaining, etc - and seem to be stuck in āblameā.
Does Craig deserve a big hit for his sendoff? Maybe. He couldāve had one too, if heād bothered to commit to the role a year earlier rather than play coy with the Broccolis for what felt like an eternity.
Purvis and Wade had five years to write a decent script. Couldnāt do it. Hope the extra two months they needed to āpolishā it were worth it. The end result is this dogās breakfast sitting collecting dust before being farted out onto a streaming service with all the fanfare of a double funeral.
The Broccolis could have had the fat profits from a Danny Boyle blockbuster to tide them over while they wait out the apocalypse in their mansions, keeping them in spaghetti and meatballs while they pointedly donāt bother working on Bond 26. But no - seems like they didnāt even bother catching up with Boyle over a coffee for what his plans were before signing him up and building sets. Whoops!
They deserve a flop. I hope they get it. The series will go on. I wouldnāt have seen any of the profits anyway. I have no skin in this particular game. Maybe once the piles of corpses are cleared away in 2023 they can sell the franchise to someone who gives a damn. Cheerful thoughts!
Reality called. Wants to know why youāre ignoring it.
Are you sure this is the forum for you?
I would like to see NTTD on the big screen (ā¦) February 2020.
What a fiasco. An absolute hash job. Iāve gone through the steps of grieving - rage, bargaining, etc - and seem to be stuck in āblameā. (ā¦) Purvis and Wade had five years to write a decent script. Couldnāt do it. Hope the extra two months they needed to āpolishā it were worth it. The end result is this dogās breakfast sitting collecting dust before being farted out onto a streaming service with all the fanfare of a double funeral.
Honestly I share your thoughts about this.
They deserve a flop. I hope they get it.
Probably I could said YES. I think Barbara Broccolli has betrayed the legacy of Cubby more than one time in too many occasions.
they can sell the franchise to someone
Yes. Itās obvious this time will come. But WHO ? NSNA has proved itās possible and will be certainly lucrative.