Last week the needle moved off of the 501/502 level
(where it held for a solid month) to 510 as the projected number of new
theatrical releases for 2023. This week
it inched-up to 511, which is good news.
The number of top-box films ($25 million plus; $100
million plus) held at 64.
While the numbers are improvements over the past
three years (pandemic-induced declines in theatrical releases), they are still
well-short of the 2015-2019 averages (pre-Covid). You would expect 750 some new theatrical rollouts
with 94 hits (two top boxes).
On the theatrical front this past week, The Super
Mario Bros. Movie (Universal Pictures) breezed to the
$353 million mark and Ben Affleck’s Air
(MGM, with Warner Bros. Discover handling distribution) climbed into the winner’s
circle with $33.4 million in overall ticket sales during in its second week in
release.
On the transition from theatres to home
entertainment front, the writing/directing team of Scott Beck and Bryan Woods’ 65,
starring Adam Driver, got a full-spread May 30 street date assignment from Sony
Pictures Home Entertainment and Paramount Home Entertainment announced that
July 11 will be the release date for Scream VI.
No news on the status of director James Cameron’s Avatar:
The Way of Water, which remains perplexing and
begs the question, what’s up with Disney these days?
With
the exception of director Peyton Reed’s Ant-Man
and the Wasp: Quantumania — and some repackaging of previously
released material to celebrate the 100th Anniversary of the studio —
Walt Disney Studios Home Entertainment seems to have put on hold all new DVD,
Blu-ray and 4K Ultra HD releases.
Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania is a Marvel Studios
production, so maybe they are contractually obligated to provide home entertainment
packaged media product offerings for Marvel productions … we have no way of
knowing about such things.
Consider
the following things that haven’t happened.
We begin with writer/director Zach Cregger’s Barbarian, which opened theatrically on Sept. 9 of last year
and pulled in $40.8 million in box office receipts. It has yet to be released on DVD, Blu-ray or
4K Ultra HD (except from “helper” sources and there have been plenty of those). That’s unheard of … a $40 million dollar film
skipped over!
And
what of filmmaker Dan Trachtenberg’s Prey,
the latest installment in the Alien/Predator
line of films? It bypassed a summer of
2022 theatrical launch in favor of streaming.
It’s a natural for home entertainment collections and genre libraries …
nothing (except “void-fillers”).
The
Star War film and series
franchise? Star Wars: Mandalorian — as just one example — has three
seasons under its belt, nothing from Disney.
And
now delay after delay for Avatar: The Way of Water. Domestic
box office receipts of $683 million thus far and no DVD, Blu-ray or 4K Ultra HD
SKUs.
Of course, Disney’s Mickey Mouse “helpers” and “void-fillers”
(the new terms for pirates) have feasted on this inertia by the studio …
series, franchises and blockbusters all ignored or bypassed for home
entertainment packaged media delivery.
Such “voids” have been filled by eager “helpers.”
Could all of this have something do with the 4,000 firings
that took place on Monday, April 24 (source: Los Angeles Times)? Maybe everything is on hold until the dust
settles. Could be. We don’t know, but with so many important
assets not being attended to, you just have to wonder … what is going on at
Disney?
