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In the old days, movie studios shared box office information in real time, allowing Hollywood and its people to quickly and easily assess whether a movie was a success or a failure. The streaming revolution has changed things, ushering in a “take our word” culture, in which Netflix, HBO Max or Amazon publish vague statements about the quality of “Bird Box”, “Wonder Woman 1984” or “Borat 2” “did on their respective subscription streaming service without providing much empirical evidence.
Over the weekend, Disney shakes things up, revealing that not only did “Black Widow” set a pandemic-era box office record with its $ 80 million domestic debut, but it did. also supplemented those figures with an additional $ 60 million in rental income on Disney Plus. This rare moment of transparency intensifies the pressure on other media companies to share more data on the performance of their films with audiences. The studios were already feeling a certain heat to offer more information, sources say, especially from talent agents who complain that it has become more difficult for them to get the best salaries for their clients without proof that their last film for Netflix, Hulu or their ilk was a success. . Some are even willing to live in a world where failures are reported, as well as triumphs, preferably by a third-party arbiter similar to how Comscore is the go-to source for box office data or Nielsen is best. . well-known columnist for public engagement.
Despite this growing tension, many entertainment industry analysts believe that Disney’s decision to share “Black Widow” on-demand revenue information was an anomaly, not a sign of things to come. That means Disney might not be as available with its global consumer spending for “Jungle Cruise,” which opens July 30 in theaters and on Disney Plus under its Premier Access banner.
“Personally, I think studios weren’t willing to release streaming metrics for movies because the numbers weren’t very good,” said Eric Handler, entertainment industry analyst at MKM Partners. “‘Black Widow’ appears to be the first major movie where [premium video-on-demand] really succeeded.
Handler also notes that on-demand “Black Widow” tax reporting helped improve coverage of the Marvel movie’s commercial performance. Tying that rental income to domestic results ($ 80 million) and international numbers ($ 78.8 million) allowed the film to have an all-inclusive opening weekend of over $ 200 million.
In the case of “Black Widow,” Disney Plus subscribers could watch the movie for $ 30 exclusively on Disney’s own streaming platform, allowing the media company to pocket nearly all of the rental fees. without sharing the wealth with other services. The transactional model is a bit of a “walled garden” ecosystem that rivals Apple. But that’s not possible for future releases on services like HBO Max, Netflix, or Amazon, all of which include new movies at no additional cost as part of their monthly subscription fees. These companies will have to report the audience, not the rental income of the individual titles.
Netflix began to flirt with this, further revealing its audience figures for high-profile films like “Extraction” with Chris Hemsworth or Kevin Hart’s “Fatherhood” and including a list of the “top 10” on its top 10 site. most popular. One problem with streaming metrics, however, is that they don’t capture the entire audience. Analysts and rivals complain that even when Netflix releases its carefully curated data, its definition of acclaim is so broad that critics say it obscures, rather than revealing the true size of the audience. The company registers as a spectator anyone who has watched at least two minutes of a film. Other services have followed suit, using opaque measures to tout big winners and cover up embarrassing blunders. HBO Max, for example, reported in April that “Godzilla vs. Kong” enjoyed a “bigger audience than any other movie or show on HBO Max since its launch,” but it did not provide advice on how to do it. a number of people, you know, actually sat down to watch the epic showdown between the two otherworldly monsters.
So where does that leave the other players in the great streaming war? Internally, some companies are feeling the pressure to be transparent with streaming statistics. Others pushed back, objecting that if Netflix doesn’t have to share anything substantial, they shouldn’t either. Warner Bros., which has its entire 2021 movie list premiering simultaneously on HBO Max (both share a parent company in AT&T / WarnerMedia), has no immediate plans to release more granular audience data on the films. coming up as “Space Jam: A New Legacy,” but that could change with later films on its release schedule like “Dune” or “The Suicide Squad.” For its part, Amazon’s decision to share few numbers comes from above and is part of a larger corporate mandate emanating from the highest echelons of the e-commerce juggernaut.
Handler says subscription streaming services Netflixes, HBO Maxes and Amazons have little incentive to report tangible measures on separate titles. Wall Street is more interested in the total number of paying subscribers than in the achievements of a particular film. Investors don’t necessarily care that “Wonder Woman 1984” could lose money for the studio if it means tens of thousands of people have signed up to HBO Max to watch it from the comfort of their couch. .
“At the moment, the quality of an individual title is less relevant than the growth in the number of subscribers,” says Handler. “Companies see growth in subscriber numbers as the most important metric. Profitability is secondary. This is why Warner Bros. can afford to take a full year of movies and use them as waste to develop HBO Max.
Universal, on the other hand, has the ability to disclose video-on-demand sales in a meaningful way. The studio signed a landmark deal last year to put its films on premium digital rental services earlier than usual. This method, like buying tickets at the box office, requires a transaction on each title. Universal once attempted clarity. (Spoiler alert, it was not well received.)
Last April, NBCUniversal CEO Jeff Shell told the Wall Street Journal that “Trolls World Tour,” the studio’s animated film that skipped theaters to make its on-demand debut, has racked up nearly 100 millions of dollars in rentals in three weeks. Shell said the film was more profitable during this period than the original “Trolls” film after five months in theaters, a fact that was less exciting for theater operators. AMC, for its part, threatened to stop playing Universal’s films in response. Over the following months, Universal released several premium VOD films, including “The Croods: A New Age”, “Nobody” and “News of the World”, as well as “Promising Young Woman”, “Boogie” and “The High Note” from his specialty label Focus Features. Sources at Universal have indicated that all but one of the studio’s films released in the past 18 months have been profitable, but he has not released any figures that would allow the studio. or filmmakers to take a victory lap. The overwhelmingly positive press surrounding ‘Black Widow’ world opening weekend, which almost all focused on its $ 60 million haul on Disney Plus, could entice rivals to issue their own bragging rights.However, more transparency in streaming revenue would also force studios to own commercial flops, which they have largely been able to avoid so far.
“As businesses mature and people start to focus more on results, this can make a difference,” says Handler. But for now, he adds, “I’m not holding my breath. I think [‘Black Widow’] was a unique situation.
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