The dust has finally settled. Theaters around the world are gradually returning to their pre-Covid-19 audience levels, although it will be difficult to reach this goal before 2025. Meanwhile, streaming platforms (Netflix, Prime Video, Disney+, Apple TV+, HBO Max) continue to rack up subscribers. Those who predicted that cinema lovers would no longer leave their couches to return to theaters were wrong.
As the 77th edition of the Cannes Film Festival opens on Tuesday, May 14, the heated quarrels have subsided. Since 2018, streaming platform bosses hoping to walk the Croisette red carpet with one of their films have had to commit to releasing it in cinemas in France. Those who refuse now try their luck at other festivals, in Berlin, Toronto or Venice. Once again, the pessimists, convinced that Cannes would suffer greatly from this French exception, waved their red flags in vain.
Pure economics has taken over again, and producers in Hollywood and elsewhere are well aware that a film released in cinemas worldwide, then exploited on DVD, TV and streaming, will be far more profitable than an exclusive purchase by a platform with no possibility of further exploitation. The pandemic proved to be a temporary interruption.
'Theaters are irreplaceable'
At the annual CinemaCon convention in Las Vegas in early April, Michael O'Leary, president of the National Association of Theatre Owners in the US, reaffirmed that "a movie that begins its journey with theatrical exclusivity is more successful in every subsequent ancillary platform." He asserted that "releasing major films with massive budgets directly to streaming platforms is not a sustainable business model."
Hollywood studios, which during the pandemic snubbed cinemas to release their productions only on their platforms, have put an end to this strategy. One of the last films of this type, Luca Guadagnino's Challengers, co-funded by Amazon, was released worldwide in theaters.
"Theaters have won, and platforms are realizing that they are irreplaceable," explained Anne Flamant, cinema and audiovisual director at Neuflize OBC bank (ABN Amro). "Theaters make people dream," added Eric Marti, managing director of the analysis company Comscore.
The impact of Hollywood's long 2023 strike has certainly slowed the long-awaited rebound in theaters. However, in his opinion, "streamers had their heyday; they were attractive when the whole planet was in lockdown." The extraordinary success of Barbie and Oppenheimer – which developed gradually over the summer of 2023 – could never have happened on platforms. According to Marti, almost no film released exclusively on streaming platforms has remained iconic. With a few exceptions, such as Coda, funded by Apple TV+, the stream of awards hoped for at festivals or the Oscars has yet to materialize.
You have 48.2% of this article left to read. The rest is for subscribers only.