Disney CEO doesn’t think we can go back to the old way of releasing movies

Brace yourself for a piercing insight: the pandemic has changed the way we live. We’re all holed up in our homes way more than before, often turning to TV, movies and video games to fill the time. That’s also had a big effect on the entertainment industry, as studios have tried to get their content in front of us during a time when we can’t go to movie theaters.

It’s been a contentious process. When Universal announced it might skip theatrical releases after Trolls: World Tour performed well on-demand, AMC flipped out, although the two companies did eventually come to an agreement. When Disney released Mulan straight to its Disney+ streaming service, there were naysayers, but it must have worked okay, because they later did the same thing with Soul. And when Warner Bros. decided to release its entire slate of 2021 movies simultaneously in theaters and on HBO Max, some prominent filmmakers damn near had aneurysms, but the strategy worked incredibly well for Wonder Woman 1984, so it seems like Warner Bros. made the right call.

Warner Bros., by the way, has insisted that this strategy is only in place for this year. But given how much people seem to like watching these movies at home, you have to wonder if that’s true. Is there really any going back, or will we keep seeing big movies released straight to streaming services even after the pandemic is over?

Disney CEO Bob Chapek doesn’t think we can go back to the old way of releasing movies

Speaking at the Morgan Stanley Technology, Media and Telecommunications Conference, Disney CEO Bob Chapek seemed to think so. “The consumer is probably more impatient than they’ve ever been before, particularly since now they’ve had the luxury of an entire year of getting titles at home pretty much when they want them. So, I’m not sure there’s going back. But we certainly don’t want to do anything like cut the legs off a theatrical exhibition run.”

It’s a little weird to describe anything about this last year as a “luxury,” but I take his point. Personally, I like the Warner Bros. strategy. I’ll 100% still go see movies like Dune in theaters, because I want the big screen experience for that, but there may be other movies I wouldn’t bother buying a ticket for but might check out if they’re available on HBO Max.

Basically, the times are changing and I think it’s best to embrace that. And I predict we’ll see more industry professionals doing that as it becomes clear this is where things are headed, and that theaters aren’t going to go anywhere. There’s still value in the theatrical experience, but giving the customer options is also a good thing.

We’ll see what happens when Black Widow, the next big movie on Disney’s release schedule, comes out on May 7. We still don’t know if Disney plans to keep that exclusive to theaters for a while or to supplement it with a streaming release, but whatever it does will signal its intentions for the future.

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h/t TheWrap