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Let& #39;s talk about Fast & Furious. Fast 9 was supposed to be released this summer, but the studio pushed to next summer. When you spend $200M+ to make a film, you need the huge box office returns…
*Spoiler Alert* There might not be box offices next summer.
*Spoiler Alert* There might not be box offices next summer.
Fast& #39;s strategy is based on the assumption theaters will be back open & ticket sales what they were pre-covid… We can only get back to the kind of consumer behavior, when some combination of the following are in place: Vaccine. Treatment. Risk Mitigation (masks in public, etc.)
Imagine sitting in a theater right now. Shoulder to shoulder with strangers. Popcorn in your lap that is open to the air... somebody sneezes or coughs in the dark. We& #39;re coming out of this with some level of PTSD around germs and the scenario I just laid out feels super gross.
So Fast& #39;s strategy is headed for a harsh reality. AND, imagine how subtly different life will be in a year & how strange that might appear on screen. ie, if there is a scene in the film where they& #39;re in a packed bar / restaurant, nobody wearing masks... it& #39;s going to feel wrong.
It& #39;s like a scene from a movie pre 9/11 when people met loved ones at the gate, or where people didn& #39;t have to go thru all the TSA stuff. It works because we know this was in the past, but if Fast 9 is meant to be present day when it comes out, it& #39;ll have some serious plot holes.
What Fast missed, was the opportunity to create the future of film consumption. That franchise has a massive international following… and instead of assuming status quo, they were visionary... they could have created the biggest direct to consumer media release in history.
A global live world premier could have been the highest grossing PPV event in history (Mayweather vs. McGregor was $700M from 6.7M buys). Fast could have signaled a new path to world premiers & reshaped a dying industry. Oh well, you live you life a quarter mile at a time.
