PARTNERSHIPS | COMMUNITY | PODCAST | FRIENDS
A Theatrical Release Is The Best Marketing For Streaming
The new release cycle // Illustration by Kate Walker
Big studio movies that don’t do well at the box office are turning into surprise hits on streaming platforms.
The Big Picture: What counts as a “hit” in Hollywood is becoming harder to define, especially since theatrical ticket sales now make up just one part of a movie’s economic journey. That’s been true since the DVD era, but the streaming age is rewriting the narrative once again — and redefining what a theatrical release is ultimately for.
Behind The Scenes: The bigger the bomb in theaters, the higher the likelihood it could top the streaming charts, per Bloomberg.
Sony’s Spider-Man spinoff, Madame Web, tanked in theaters after scathing reviews but became Netflix’s #1 movie for a week when it premiered on the service — beating hits like Anyone But You and It Ends with Us.
The same thing happened to Kraven the Hunter (another Spidey spinoff) on Netflix, M3GAN 2.0 on Peacock, Flight Risk on Starz, and Mickey 17 on HBO Max.
Last year, nine of the ten most-watched films on streaming were first released in theaters — and the same trend is expected this year. It shows that a theatrical release has become the best form of marketing.
New Audience: Studios are well aware of their movies’ second lives on streaming and are now negotiating deals that reflect these evolving viewing habits. Universal and Warner Bros. have started putting their titles — hits and flops alike — on their own platforms first before licensing them to Netflix, Prime Video, or Hulu in hopes of driving more subscriptions. The new Paramount regime is reportedly looking to do the same.
Meanwhile, Sony is said to be negotiating a new kind of deal with Netflix — one that would pay based on projected streaming viewership rather than box office returns. It’s a long shot, but it signals how streaming data may soon become Hollywood’s real scoreboard.
Coming Soon: Many of the films that bombed in theaters were notoriously eviscerated by critics and on social media… so we wouldn’t be surprised if studios lean into those bad reviews to pique curiosity for their streaming releases.
PARTNERSHIPS | COMMUNITY | PODCAST | FRIENDS
Today’s email was written by David Vendrell.
Edited by Nick Comney. Polled and Copy-edited by Kait Cunniff.
Published by Darline Salazar.