Netflix is one of the big film production companies. They all started the year with a busy schedule of new movies, however, the Coronavirus decided otherwise. In France, as in many countries around the world, movie theaters are closed and do not allow customers to see the latest films on view.
In 2020, Universal had put the package on film releases. It is expected the last James Bond, Without a noise 2, the last Fast & Furious. A large number have been postponed in the coming months since it is unimaginable to release big movie budgets this month or next month with current sanitary conditions.
You guessed it, if Universal and its competitors shift all the new films, there is a risk of having a hell of a traffic jam in the films playing at the end of the year. To limit simultaneous launches, Universal has decided to offer films for rental. It was revealed today that three highly anticipated films will be available for rental on iTunes and other VOD sales and rental platforms.
Three films have been selected for this somewhat special launch: Invisible Man The Hunt Emma This is a world-first for Universal, the company which has never really been for this kind of practice, must confront it today after the confinement of hundreds of millions of people to worldwide.
The rental of films will be exactly on the same principle as a normal rental. You will have to validate the order with your Apple account and the content will be accessible over the next 48 hours. What is likely to cool down will probably be the price, since Universal will offer the rental of its new products at a rate set at €20, much more than a cinema seat.
We imagine that this price as high is also related to the commission that takes Apple, which must be much more important than the cinemas. If Contagion left the catalog of Netflix, it is to better achieve a box on iTunes. While it was not even in the top 100 of the ranking of the most downloaded films on the Apple platform last year, it ranked in twelfth position in February across the Atlantic.
The same trend identified by Warner Bross, the film production company, if Contagion was his 270th most-watched film in December, in early 2020 it is his second most popular film.
Following the decision of many studios to release the films planned in theaters directly in digital format in order to save the furniture in this period of confinement, Paramount will significantly accelerate the arrival of its film Sonic on iTunes and other legal streaming services March 31 in the territory of the United States. It is already available for pre-order, for the price of $19.99. This digital release remains a record speed, occurring only 46 days after the film’s arrival at the cinema.
Other studios, such as Disney or Universal, have used a similar option, but have not sold their titles, only rented them. For a film based on a video game, Sonic experienced despite the crisis fairly good results: 146 million dollars in domestic, for 306 million dollars in the world, it is considered the biggest economic success for a film of this kind in the United States. Purchasing the film on iTunes allows it to be played on all Apple devices, such as the iPhone, iPad and Apple TV, as well as on certain connected TVs.
