Just yesterday, we posted a story about Twisters star Glen Powell championing the moviegoing experience and urging people to see his movie in theaters. Indeed, Twisters has proven to be a solid performer for Universal, with it having a surprisingly good $80 million opening and having better-than-expected legs at the box office (although it’s apparently struggled internationally, where it’s only made a fraction of what it has domestically). Despite the solid box office performance in North America, Universal plans to give the film an early VOD release, with Forbes reporting it will be available digitally on August 13th.
Why so soon? It seems that Universal wants to take advantage of all the good word-of-mouth and generate some serious VOD sales, but it can’t be denied this sounds like an ill-advised cash grab. When an event movie like Twisters is made available just a few weeks after it hits theaters, it helps train moviegoers to skip movies theatrically in favor of watching them at home. Twisters being released so soon is a surprise, as high-performing films such as this one (it’s nearing $200 million domestically) are usually allowed to play theatres exclusively for a solid six-week run.
Granted, movies that have underperformed, such as The Fall Guy, Furiosa and Horizon: Chapter 1, have performed well on VOD, and releasing them early makes sense. But, with Twisters still making a lot of money in theatres (it’s going to beat Trap for second place at the box office this weekend), it seems like Universal is undercutting the legs it’s been showing, even if the foreign gross (only about $66 million so far) is underwhelming.
What do you think about Twisters hitting PVOD so soon? Do you think it dissuades people from seeing it theatrically, or does it not really make a difference? Let us know in the talkbacks!