When news came at the end of 2020 that a couple of big studios would be committed to a primarily streaming focused release schedule in 2021, it was a change that many viewers had been waiting for following the slow decline of the box office in recent years as a whole – it didn’t really come as a surprise either with big names like Disney having already announced a re-organization of its business for a bigger focus on its own streaming service, but also just with the change of entertainment as a whole as the online space has continued to grow from gaming opportunities and even throughout the course of the year with the closure of brick-and-mortar options in betting in favor of online betting alternatives such those found at Canadian-sports-betting.com. The online space as a whole seems to be the very close future, but it could already be in jeopardy.
For the most notable studio in Warner Bros, it was seemingly always a temporary change as only 10 releases have been committed for a straight to streaming release in 2022 despite the success already seen this year, and it may come from pressure from directors trying to urge movie-goers to return to the cinema and not to rely on the streaming releases. But the issues faced by Disney and its release of Black Widow could flare up a big red flag for other studios looking to follow – although things are seemingly settled now, it has left a sour taste for some with questions around how big talent pay will work given most work from profits earned at the box office, which streaming no longer supplies.
This also comes at a time where cinema and theatre attendance is up again for the holiday period with the end of year huge releases yet to come through – it isn’t certain if these numbers can hold up into the spring and summer when releases may slow a little but particularly throughout the winter there will be strong figures seen. Notable releases will stick to streaming release as Netflix, Prime, and Disney+ will still have a very strong schedule of releases yet to come, but the short period of time in which the latest box office hits could be viewed from the comfort of our own homes was only short lived.
There will be calls to see it return in the future which may be a real possibility, but certainly something very unlikely in the short term – the straight to streaming release schedule will remain at risk for a while until calls to bring streaming come back in a wider way, but that doesn’t mean there isn’t plenty to look forward to as there are some great releases on the horizon, and a return to cinema has been missed by many.
