'A theatrical release increases the value of a film, throughout the value chain,' says Christian Bräuer, president of European art house cinemas group CICAE
The road comedy 'Lost in Russia' was the only Chinese blockbuster to go direct-to-VOD during the COVID-19 shutdown.
It was two days before the start of the Lunar New Year, the family holiday that marks the beginning of China's blockbuster season. Box office typically spikes over New Year and local studios use the holiday to roll out their big tentpole titles. Not this time. Instead, Chinese studios pulled their holiday titles, anticipating quarantine measures that quickly shut down cinemas across the country. China's cinemas are still shut and all of those would-be blockbuster remain unseen.
Even in France, which has some of the strictest windowing rules in the world, COVID-19 has forced a change in behavior. In late March, the French government gave national cinema body the CNC the right to unilaterally shorten the VOD windows for films that were on release before the coronavirus shutdown.
But, Border notes, there are still only a handful of territories where on-demand is a big enough business to make it worth it. Ampere estimates digital transactional revenues — both premium video on demand and electronic sell-through were $4.25 billion in the U.S. last year, or around 40 percent of the $10.5 billion theatrical market. There are healthy on-demand markets in countries like the U.K.
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