Netflix is interested in theatrical releases for some of its upcoming movies, JPMorgan said following CinemaCon, one of the largest movie theater conferences, which was held last week in Las Vegas.
Analysts at the conference report that Netflix has a “real interest” in theatrical releases. “Netflix desires its movies to have a bigger cultural impact,” according to JPMorgan analyst Alexia Quadrani.
“The company is in process of determining how to market its movies and the amount to commit for ad spending, as most wide releases would cost $50m or more for [print and advertising],” Quadrani wrote.
“A theatrical window that is too short defeats the purpose as it becomes hard to market a movie with a limited run,” Quadrani said, according to a CNBC report.
Netflix already has plans for brief theatrical windows in the coming months, however. The streaming service recently announced that 42 new movies will be added to its library this fall. Of those, 14 of the titles are also set for short theatrical releases alongside their Netflix debut.
At this point, there are no details about Netflix’s plans for traditional theatrical releases. Until now, Netflix has focused on streaming to bring subscribers great features and new content. The company did not appear to have an interest in theatrical releases until recently. The steady growth of the streaming industry has drastically changed how theatrical releases work, however. Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, theatrical release windows for many new titles have been shortened from 90 to 45 days.
Netflix
Netflix is a subscription video streaming service that includes on-demand access to 3,000+ movies, 2,000+ TV Shows, and Netflix Originals like Stranger Things, Squid Game, The Crown, Tiger King, and Bridgerton. They are constantly adding new shows and movies. Some of their Academy Award-winning exclusives include Roma, Marriage Story, Mank, and Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom.
This past year has been interesting for movie theaters and streaming services. During the pandemic, Disney+ introduced Premier Access, which let its subscribers pay an additional fee to stream Disney movies while they were still in theaters. Though this has been a success for the streaming service, movie theaters have suffered, especially with big releases like Black Widow.
HBO Max also offered a similar feature but didn’t charge extra for it. Disney+ is planning to make decisions on a “film-by-film” basis going forward, while HBO Max still has several movies slated as being available to stream the same day they’re released later this year.