I wonder if they know they are giving up on theaters. Maybe their plan is a minor theater run just for awards eligibility and then leaning on the home streaming market?

Theaters want to turn over movies, just like restaurants want to turn over tables. The theater gets $20/ticket yet whether the movie is 90 minutes long or 190. And that's long enough quite a few customers will think "eh, I'll watch that from home with snacks and bathroom nearby and a pause button".

[–] Xtallll@lemmy.blahaj.zone 3 points 1 month ago (1 children)

Disney knows, Disney doesn't care. If a theater is open 12 hours a day and has 10 screens they have 120 hours of screen time a day, if Disney drops a big movie theaters can't add more screens they can push out smaller movies for Avatar. Long movies are an anticompetitive action.

[–] Blaze@piefed.zip 3 points 1 month ago

I always forget that Disney owns the Fox now. Still weird to me.

[–] IWW4@lemmy.zip 3 points 1 month ago

The last one made 2 billion dollars and the one before that made a billion. Thhat will get you whatever you want.

[–] MimicJar@lemmy.world 1 points 1 month ago

They're definitely not giving up on theatres. The last two made billions of dollars each.

However the last film was available on PVOD after 102 days and Disney+ streaming after 173 days. Recent films, looking at Marvel and DC, usually get PVOD after ~70 days and streaming after ~100 days. I expect this film will swing a little higher in terms of days since they'll probably have a few more special showings (more IMAX etc) after the holiday season.

Now I wouldn't be surprised if Disney has a plan for an intermission if that is the feedback they get. And honestly if films keep getting longer it may become a standard thing. And if it becomes a standard then I think theaters would be exited, since they can get you to buy more candy, popcorn and soda.