Theater owners blast Disney for dual-release Black Widow strategy

Black Widow is the first Marvel movie in well over a year, and its release was pushed back several times as a result of the pandemic, building buzz that should have translated to massive box office numbers. And the movie did indeed shatter post-pandemic box office debut numbers with its $218 million haul, which had included $60 million from people streaming the movie at home through Disney+ Premiere Access viewing.

But this past weekend, the movie’s gross dropped by 41% from that opening high. And according to Deadline, the National Association of Theater Owners are blaming Disney+ for torpedoing the movie’s box office potential, both by giving people another option to see the movie and by making it more vulnerable to pirates.

According to a press release from the organization, Disney’s strategy of releasing Black Widow both in theaters and on Disney+ “ignores that Premiere Access is not new-found money, but was pulled away from a more traditional PVOD window, which is no longer an option.”

"This was also the case for all simultaneous releases (Wonder Woman 1984, Godzilla vs Kong, Cruella, Mortal Kombat). This did not happen for F9 or A Quiet Place Part II. How much money did everyone lose to simultaneous release piracy? The many questions raised by Disney’s limited release of streaming data opening weekend are being rapidly answered by Black Widow’s disappointing and anomalous performance. The most important answer is that simultaneous release is a pandemic-era artifact that should be left to history with the pandemic itself."

Is the Black Widow release strategy part of the new normal?

Theaters have been struggling to recover after the devastation caused by the pandemic. Shuttered theaters are finally opening back up and movies like Black Widow were supposed to be tentpoles, not just for the summer box office but for the box office in general as it works to return to some semblance of post-pandemic normalcy.

As the Delta variant of the coronavirus spreads, many people are content to stay home and watch movie premieres in the comfort and safety of their houses. HBO Max and Disney+ have been providing content to viewers with a dual-release strategy that allows access to new releases from home and theaters on the day they premiere.

The difference between Disney+ and HBO Max, though, is that Disney+ charges $30 for access to new releases on top of subscription costs while HBO Max has been offering all 2021 releases for no extra charge. When Disney reported their $60 million Premier Access earnings after Black Widow’s opening day, theaters were up in arms because they didn’t have access to that cut. If you think of families and friends sitting down to watch Black Widow together at home, the $30 Premiere Access fee is nothing compared to the per-person cost of seeing the movie in theaters.

Interestingly, Disney hasn’t released week-to-week Premier Access revenue, and many theater owners are crying foul. Without that data it’s impossible to tell whether piracy and Premier Access were the culprits of the box office drop, or if it was something else. It should be noted that reviews for the movie have been mixed, so it’s entirely possible that people are simply content to wait to see the movie when it arrives on Disney+ for free.

It’s a touchy situation as the Delta variant spreads. There is an argument that some people will continue to skip theaters entirely, so movies being released in theaters would not have seen that money anyway. Many people would love to return to theaters, but given the uncertainty about people who have or haven’t been vaccinated, they’re not willing to take the risk. In fairness, Disney is offering an option to see the movie for those groups, but it comes at a cost to theaters.

At this point, it’s impossible to deny that the current landscape supports the dual release model…for now. Perhaps as vaccine rates climb and the Delta variant slows down, people will return to theaters in greater numbers. For now, though, it’s hard to imagine Disney changing its release strategy.

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