I don’t know about everyone else, but my fiancé Nikki and I LOVE going to the movies! There is nothing better than walking into the theater, smelling the freshly made popcorn and deciding which one of the overpriced snacks you are going to eat half of before the credits start. Movies have often offered people an escape from their day to day and today, that is very limited.
The world is obviously in shambles with the global pandemic of covid-19 and theaters have stayed closed or opened in a limited capacity if possible. There is hope that the theaters will survive and do well after all of this is over. Today though, I want to examine the industry since “social distancing” and “quarantining” have become commonplace in our society and what may change as we move into the future.
When the world came to a screeching halt, so did the movie theater industry and film industry. My favorite $5 movies on Tuesday at my local theater began eroding slowly into a memory. The good news for film lovers though, big movie companies would not lose out on your money or mine and they worked fast to come up with a way to keep the money train moving. Amazon Prime and other streaming services started making movies available on demand instead of in theaters and it happened fast!
Since the initial shutdown/stay at home order phase of this year, there have been 20+ movies released either early on Video-On-Demand (VOD) of as the only release of the film (skipping theatrical release).
Here’s the List:
Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker
Onward
Trolls World Tour
The Invisible Man
The Hunt
Frozen II
Emma
Birds of Prey
Bloodshot
I Still Believe
The Way Back
Sonic the Hedgehog
Bad Boys for Life
Downhill
The Call of the Wild
Artemis Fowl
Scoob!
The High Note
Never Rarely Sometimes Always
The King of Staten Island
Greyhound
Irresistible
The Outpost
These movies were released in two different ways, the first of which was that they were added to a streaming service for free (with subscription) such as Frozen II and Onward that were sent immediately to Disney+. The other way movies were released was as a rental for $20+ each. This could be one of the only ways we view new movies.
This isn't even all of the movies that have released, but it was all I could find. With that said, there are other top end movies coming out on VOD only or as a delayed theater relase such as Bill and Ted: Face the Music, The New Mutants, Free Guy, and many more. There are some titles that are not coming out anytime soon though, and that list is growing.
Movies that are on an indefinite delay:
Mulan
Tenet
Antlers
Woman in The Window
Run
Malignant
I’m not the biggest fan of watching new released movies at home. I feel like there are too many distractions and my attentions are elsewhere. There is a relief when you go into a theater, a relief that there are no outside interferences and you can just focus on enjoying your escape from the real world.
The good news for movie goers that are diehard for their movies is some theaters have opened and have new policies in place to try to make things as safe as possible for their customers. Marcus Theaters according to their website is requiring masks except when eating and drinking, social distancing will be observed, sanitizer throughout the facility, plexiglass barriers, increased cleaning schedules and wellness checks for associates prior to every shift. In my opinion, it is asinine to sit in a theater with others around you for an extended period of time and with what would be my thoughts of a probable lackluster cleaning job done by an hourly waged employee. I know that I wouldn’t want to risk that right now, so for me, I will be sticking at home or visiting drive in movie theaters until things clear up, or we get these super awesome Star Wars senate looking theater seats.
This theater concept was created by Pierre Chican of the Oma Theater in France. This will tenativley be going into his theater and it is a glimpse into the future and I can’t wait for this. It looks out of this world awesome!
I know that the world is still in a bit of turmoil and our usual escapes of day to day aren’t what they used to be for so many people. All we can do is keep our heads up and make the best of our options around us. I look forward to all the upcoming movies that make it to release and can’t wait for the next amazing story I get to see on a big screen!
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P.S. Amazon Prime has just begun a new beta for their Prime Video service called “Watch Party”. This will allow you to start a watch party on their platform and invite friends to watch and chat during the movie as you watch it at the same time! Give it a try if zoom calls just aren’t cutting it anymore!
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