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$2.3 Million
$0In a bid to promote its new streaming platform Paramount+ the studio today has announced that selected movies will be put exclusively on the platform between 30 and 45 days after release.
The new streaming platform is the latest home video on demand service to be launched alongside the likes of Disney+ from Disney which includes the likes of Pixar, Star Wars and marvel Cinematic Universe and HBO Max which is owned by Warner Bros.
During the last 12 months Disney and Warner Bros. have used their platforms to launch their titles that have had long delays, like Disney's Mulan, although often they have also given them a theatrical release in cities and countries where they are open, HBO Max has done it at no extra charge, Disney have charged a premium on top of the monthly fee.
During a press conference today (February 24th 2021) ViacomCBS chief Bob Bakish, who own Paramount and Universal studios laid out the plans for the new service which will take over from CBS All Access and their other streaming platforms.
The upcoming Mission:Impossible 7 and A Quiet Place Part II, both of which have suffered delayed releases because of the pandemic, are two title the CEO named which will be on the platform 45 days after an exclusive theatrical window.
Universal were the company last year that upset the cinema chains in the US when they announced they would shorted the exclusive window from 90 days to 30 days, and in a controversial move they put Trolls World Tour directly to video on demand (VOD).
Cinemas in the UK are going to open on or around May 17th and in the US cinemas are opening in different states as and when they can, the industry needs a hit movie in order to get people back into cinemas.
In China last weekend the movie Detective Cinamtown 3 was released which took over $300 Million on its opening weekend and to date has taken over $600 Million, challenging Avengers: Engame as the top grossing movie of all time.
China seems to cherish its industry and is doing all it can to make it thrive, so why is the same not happening in Europe and America?
With Disney holding their bi-annual fan conference the this weekend (August 23 - 25) their new streaming service Disney+ is going to feature heavily, and after the box office success of The Lion King and Aladdin remakes this year the company is releasing Lady And THe Tramp on the service.
Today they have released the first poster for the movie which as you can see is a re-image itself of the poster for the original animated movie from 1955.
The film will be a mixture of live action and CGI animation, although clearly the focus will be on the dogs which will be CGI, and similar to The Lion King the line between what is real and created on a computer will be blurred.
Disney are set to announce more for their new streaming service which boasts it will have content from Disney, Pixar, Marvel, Star Wars and National Geographic and cost around $7 a month (about £5.70 at current exchange rate).
Being held in Anaheim California August 23rd - 25th the Ultimate Disney Fan Event is held by the company on a bi-annual basis and gives the fans news on the latest movies, TV shows and theme parks.
What can we expect for this years event? With a new Star Wars movie around the corner, the end of the phase 3 Marvel Cinematic Universe, a new Frozen movie on the horizons and an area of the Disney theme parks dedicated to Star Wars!
There may not be a new trailer coming out of the D23 expo for Star Wars: The Rise Of Skywalker but we can expect a behind the scenes reel, as we did with the last 2 films, with new footage and most likely, and just maybe we'll get an official movie poster.
There may also be some news on the new trilogy of films that are set for release every other year from December 2023.
There has been a feeling that we have had too much Star Wars in recent years so after this years movie expect the whole franchise to go quiet until the promotion starts for he 2023 movie.
Disney are releasing their own streaming service this year, Disney+, and the Star Wars Universe ig going to feed into this a lot over the years between The Rise Of Skywalker and the next cinematic adventure including the much anticipated The Mandalorian for which there will likely be a trailer.
Lets not also forget that other Lucasfilms franchise, Indianan Jones. The next movie has already been delayed but is going ahead with Harrison Ford, little is known but with a whole area dedicated to the film studio there could well be some mention of the original tomb raider.
The MCU phase 3 went out with a massive bang and Avengers: Engame became the top grossing movie of all time and Spider-Man: Far from home grossed over a Billion at the box office, so the phase 4 has a lot to live up to.
The first spanner in the works is the breakdown of the Disney and Sony (who own Spider-Man) partnership so don't expect to hear anything from the Spidey franchise, but with the acquisition of Fox by Disney every other Marvel character can now be used by Disney so expect to see the likes of X-Men and Fantastic 4 cropping up, not that we'll hear anything at D23.
There should be more news on the confirmed project like Shang-Chi, Black Widow and Thor: Love And Thunder, maybe there will even be a trailer for the Scarlett Johansson starring movie which is the first of these movie out the door next March.
Again the Disney+ streaming service, due for launch this year, will be a major part of the MCU going forward with the prospect of TV series adding to the Universe as well as movies.
One of the properties that Disney aquired when it bought Fox was James Camerons former highest grossing movie Avatar and all planed sequels.
They have been a long time coming but with the opening of the Pandora area (the planet in the movie) in Animal Kingdom in Orlando Disney are keen to get the sequels made and have announced they will be released bi-yearly fron 2022.
There will be an Avatar area as the expo and the possibility of more information of the sequels which are being made back to back.
Lets not forget the animated Disney Movies! On the horizon is Frozen II, which is kind of a big deal, the original film is still the true highest grossing animated movie of all time (not counting the new The Lion King movie) and became a cultural phenomenon back in 2013.
The trailers have promised much and we could see more footage from the film which is set for release at the end of 2019.
It has been announced that there will be a Moana area coming to Epcot in the revamp of the Walt Disney World park, this could be a sign that there is a sequel to the 2016 animated movie.
Pixar will also be showing off its future movies Onwards and Soul at a presentation during the weekend.
Little has beed seen from these movies from the digital animated arm of the company except for a trailer for Onwards, so fans are excited to see more and this is the perfect platform.
There is of course much more that will come out of the Expo so come back regularly to get all the latest news.
BB-8 from Star Wars: The Force Awakens could be the must have toy come this Christmas.
Sphero the company behind the actual robot used in the filming of the Star Wars film thinks they have produced something fans will love.
Check out the video from bbc.co.uk below.
The company was started in the US in 1997 specialising in mailing DVD's to it's customers rather than having them go to a Video Shop to rent them, utilising the internet it revolutionised the industry and was the first nail in the Blockbuster coffin. Today the company still deals with mail order but also does big business with streaming video, and from today the service has come to Britain, over 10 years later!
Does the UK need Netflix? LoveFilm has no strong competition, so in the mail order sector, but streaming/downloaded video, maybe not. I can stream films from my PS3, my Xbox 360, my iTunes account, my Apple TV (OK technically thats through iTunes as well), my TV itself, even Blockbuster if I so choose, so Netflix I think is 10 years late.
So why launch Netflix now? It has the brand recognition, despite it being US only many many UK people know the name, in fact many probably thought the service was already available in the UK. Netflix are also a massive company making billions of dollars a year, expansion was only a matter of time.
I remember working for the biggest video rental company in Britain many years ago, the company was called Ritz Video Film Hire, Blockbuster Video had been trying to crack the UK for a couple of years, they were a massive American company at the time and thought they could bring the American business model to the UK, it didn't work and Blockbuster Video was failing, so what did they do? They bought Ritz Video Film Hire and overnight the staff who had grown to hate Blockbuster were suddenly working for them, I know LoveFilm is owned by Amazon.co.uk but I can seriously see them selling to Netflix sometime down the line.
At the end of the day as long as the customer wins who cares? Already LoveFilm have reduced their prices by a pound, but LoveFilm don't offer HD yet, Netflix had that advantage for the extra pound. I'm going to sound off now, I know these services are good value, £4.99 or £5.99 for unlimited streaming films is very good, but, this thing that annoys me is they don't have the latest releases, I want to see film when they are out on DVD/Blu-ray, not weeks later, I'd even pay a pound or 2 extra so i could stream Breaking Dawn Part 1 from the day it's released, I wont get that yet with Netflix or LoveFilm, for that I'd need to stick iTunes, PS3 etc.I'm sure these services will get there, and for rental at least the future is in digital distribution, but for me Netflix isn't there yet, but still it is a welcome addition that I may use when they get same day as disk releases.