Sony Pictures To Take A Lesson From Tenet Box Office & Skip Releasing Big Budget Films Till Pandemic Resides (Photo Credit: Getty Images)
Advertisement
Sony Pictures Entertainment is one of the big production houses in Hollywood and is backing some major money earners. But as per a statement by its Chairman, Tony Vinciquerra, the production house will not release their big-budget films until more theatres open with more occupancy capacity. Owing to the coronavirus pandemic and social distancing, almost all theatres have been shut since mid-March.
Sony released one of the highest-grossing films of 2020, Bad Boys For Life, in January. Post the coronavirus pandemic spread, the production house doesn’t have any other blockbuster scheduled to release this year.
Tony Vinciquerra, Sony Pictures Entertainment Chairman, said the production house isn’t going to release their big-budget films until more theatres open. During the Bank of America’s 2020 Media, Communications & Entertainment Conference he stated, “What we won’t do is make the mistake of putting a very, very expensive $200 million movie out in the market unless we’re sure that theatres are open and operating at significant capacity.”
Sony Pictures’ Tony Vinciquerra added, “You’ll see a lot of strange things happen over the next six months in how films are released, how they’re scheduled, how they’re marketed, but once we get back to normal, we will have learned a lot I think and found ways to do things that are somewhat different and hopefully better.”
He continued, “We have a film opening this weekend, a small film [Broken Hearts Gallery], which I think will do pretty well.”
Post the lockdown, Warner Bros released their highly anticipated film, Tenet. The film earned $20 million in its opening weekend in the United States. It has grossed over $150 million worldwide.
Talking about movies heading the OTT way, Sony Picture Entertainment’s said the studio is a big supporter of theatres, but they have to sell a handful of films to streamers. He said, “We have sold three movies to streamers… because we couldn’t find a place to date them, so we sold them for a profit.”
