March 19, 2024

Picture Courtesy of MARIN INDEPENDENT JOURNAL

It has been a disastrous week for the marble in the milky way galaxy we call planet Earth. The impact of Covid-19 has continued to sweep through every town and house that stands on every continent. Businesses are changing and the world is being altered every day now. However, as the world begins to crawl in a temporary hibernation period, the movie industry continues to act upon the release of new films for people to watch at will on their home streaming services. On the other hand, movies such as No Time to Die, the new James Bond film that was supposed to be the celebratory sign off by Daniel Craig as waves goodbye to his role as 007 has delayed its release until post-summer, into the 2020-2021 school year period. This set off the ever so infamous domino effect as films left and right decided to pull the metaphorical plug and delay the release of their new ingredients to the movie soup pot. And, after the success of last year’s films, it is going to be increasingly difficult to salvage the 2020 movie catalog as the period quarantining continues to lengthen and elongate.

Over the last few weeks, however, there has been a route that film companies have been traveling down; and, it is the route of On Demand. Yes, this new idea now allows people to turn the living room of two sofas and a fireplace into a full-blown cinema extravaganza. Streaming services such as Amazon Prime Instant Video, Hulu, Netflix, Google Play, and even Vudu have been getting in on this new idea that has been recently widely used. Movies such as The Invisible Man (Amazon Prime), a science fiction horror and thriller piece starring Elizabeth Moss and The Way Back (Vudu), an American sports drama film starring Ben Affleck have been some of the major inductions into this new form of film streaming. It is a major question right now how people are going to react to this new drastic change in the movie industry. But after all, the ability to watch films in your house while they should be playing in cinemas is a truly ingenious idea that screams major profit. Moreover, major questions have continued to arise as to whether certain films are going to make the decision to go straight to online streaming, or take the hit and postpone official premiering and theater showings which can also lead to even greater profit. Furthermore, this is a major toss-up because certain people see money in different ideas and specific ways that oppose others. Overall, the idea waiting till an official release date can be a pathway to shark-infested waters; however, on the other hand, people might rather watch the official premiere viewing in a cinema than on their couch in their living room. It is a very subjective question and idea, but the answer is always changing.