NBCUniversal Says ‘Boss Baby: Family Business’ Will Release in Theaters and on Peacock July 2
Get your popcorn ready — the summer blockbuster of all blockbusters is coming to Peacock on July 2. “Boss Baby: Family Business” is coming to Peacock’s paid tiers — both its $4.99 and $9.99 packages — just in time for Independence Day weekend. The film was originally slated to release on September 17, 2020.
NBCUniversal has already done a similar release with “Trolls: World Tour” last year, where the company skipped theaters (mostly due to their forced closure during the onset of the pandemic) and decided to release the film straight to video-on-demand services. The result? “Trolls: World Tour” made over $100 million from video-on-demand rentals during its initial release window.
This irked AMC, who vowed to stop showing NBCUniversal's films (even though the pandemic forced their theaters to close, meaning they weren’t showing anything) Of course, time and money fixed all wounds, and the two companies had a new agreement — which this latest move might jeopardize.
In July 2020, AMC and NBCUniversal agreed to a deal that would make films available exclusively in theater for at least 17-days ahead of a Premium Video-On-Demand (PVOD) release. This would be drastically shorter than the normal 75-day window between a theatrical and digital download. The loophole here might be that while theaters are opening, they’re not all open, meaning NBCUniversal is within their right to release the film on Peacock. AMC could argue against that, leading to a whole new confrontation, but we’ll see how it plays out.
The film will also release in theaters — if you’re brave enough to bring your child to a movie theater with the expectation they’ll sit still for over 90 minutes, but Peacock offers both parent and child the ability to watch the film from the comfort of their own home. The “choice” has been a recent trend for kid’s movies brought on by the pandemic, but it looks like it’s one practice that could stick around for good. We thought “Trolls: World Tour” may have changed the way studios release films — and we were right for a time. But now, as more films move to a theater-only experience, we realize that this might be the way studios approach children’s movies only.
Think about it from a consumer standpoint — why spend time, energy, and money taking your young one(s) to the theater, paying $15 per ticket, then getting concessions, just to watch a movie they’re only half-engaged in, when you can watch that same movie for $4.99 in your living room? Plus, “Family Business” isn’t even the first piece of content in the “Boss Baby” universe on a streaming service — Netflix released “Boss Baby: Back in Business” in 2018, and there was nary a peep as to its status as a streaming-only venture.
Regardless, you can watch “Boss Baby: Family Business” in your living room, dining room, kitchen, or bedroom, starting July 2.
The Boss Baby: Back in Business
With a little help from his brother and accomplice, Tim, Boss Baby tries to balance family life with his job at Baby Corp headquarters.
Trolls World Tour
Queen Poppy and Branch make a surprising discovery — there are other Troll worlds beyond their own, and their distinct differences create big clashes between these various tribes. When a mysterious threat puts all of the Trolls across the land in danger, Poppy, Branch, and their band of friends must embark on an epic quest to create harmony among the feuding Trolls to unite them against certain doom.