With the Coronavirus shutting down theaters left and right, Hollywood is figuring out a way to keep their films profitable amid the crisis. What's interesting is, Universal Studios has started what looks to be the next step when audiences are encouraged to stay in.
According to Deadline, Universal has decided to take some of their films currently in cinemas, like The Invisible Man, The Hunt, and Emma, straight to home video this Friday, and will be available to consumers as a "48-hour-rental" with a suggested price of $19.99 each. Besides the three mentioned films, Trolls World Tour, which comes out in April 10, will release for the big screen as well as digitally—on the same day.
While this is probably a good compromise since audiences can't come to theaters, I can't help but think that this just opens up the movies to be pirated earlier. Then again, it's probably the only card the studio can play right now; rather than to hold on to the films, and have them compete with other movies when the box office comes back to normal—if the box office comes back to normal that is.
Either way, we shouldn't expect this to be permanent. NBC Universal had said in a statement, "NBCUniversal will continue to evaluate the environment as conditions evolve and will determine the best distribution strategy in each market when the current unique situation changes." Once the virus starts dwindling down, maybe we can expect the films to be pulled out of digital release, and back in theaters.
The Invisible Man, The Hunt, and Emma hit digital this Friday.
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