It is a time of great uncertainty for the theatrical industry. Before Covid-19 cautions led to closures of theatres across the globe in March, the Domestic Box Office (DBO) was poised for a healthy year, up 6.9 per cent over 2019 through February.
Powerhouse titles such as Marvel’s Black Widow, Universal’s Fast & Furious 9, and MGM’s James Bond: No Time to Die were geared up to lead the charge into summer. Yet, as of June 18th, DBO in the US is down 65.8 per cen vs. 2019, and studios that had once battled over prime, post-Covid release dates in late 2020 will soon be faced with another round of decisions of whether to push back again into an already-crowded market.
Right now, all of the US’s major cinema chains (AMC, Regal, and Cinemark) are slated to open sometime in the summer, along with Cineplex in Canada. As consolation to the release date juggling that took place in March, late 2020 and early 2021 are jam-packed with record-worthy content. But the question remains: will audiences show up to avail themselves of these newly opened facilities to watch these titles? And if so, under what circumstances? Beyond returning to theatres, studios have a big opportunity in the PVoD (Premium Video on Demand) space.
source:https://advanced-television.com/2020/07/13/survey-55-willing-to-try-pvod-over-cinema/