Quote:
Originally Posted by psmith2.0
Did they not release it for home viewing as well, like a lot of other recent, high-profile movies ([007, Black Widow, Ghostbusters, etc.)?
Strikes me as a bit shitheaded, releasing a big, highly-anticipated movie like this “theaters only” in the midst of something said to be so contagious and with numbers going the way they’ve been the past month or so.
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You'd think so, wouldn't you? Alas, shithead corporate profits ultimately trump any potentially humane reason.
That brief moment a year ago when studios
finally decided to do simultaneous at-home and in-theater releases might end up being outlier and a footnote in the history books now. Although
some movies are still seeing simultaneous releases, Matrix Resurrections and Dune being the only ones that immediately come to mind, plenty of the recent big-budget studio releases like Shang Chi, Eternals, Ghostbusters Afterlife, and Spider-Man No Way Home have been back to "only in theaters" for the last six months or so. Their "only in theaters" time
has been much shorter than in the before times, though. I think Disney is generally holding movies exclusively in theaters for two months before coming to home options.
That's still plenty long enough for the cultural zeitgeist to move on and for spoilers to become commonplace across news, media, and memes, though. So, "true fans" still need to cough up their cash (and health) by seeing them in theaters.
Eternals
just released for home viewing a few days ago. Its theater release date was November 5. Ghostbusters Afterlife also came home a week ago, and its theater release date was November 19. Spider-Man No Way Home released to theaters on December 13. Especially since it performed
very well in theaters, it's not likely to see any at-home options until February at the earliest, maybe not even until March.
No joke: I've actually gotten into the habit of setting a date on my calendar at 30/45/60 days from movie release dates so I know when to start looking online for them. That's how I knew to catch Ghostbusters Afterlife this week, and it's how I remembered to watch Shang Chi a few weeks ago (in theaters September 3, at home mid November).