Cinemas and video-on-demand platforms: intimate enemies

In this gallery, Fernando Lobo, responsible for programming and communication of Ambassador Cinemas, reflects on how the new exhibition windows conditioned by video-on-demand platforms have affected theaters, widely conditioned by the new consumption habits developed by experience as a result of the restrictions derived from COVID-19.

Before 2020, before the pandemic, platforms already existed. The catalogs were not as extensive and perhaps there was not as much production of its own films as there is now, but there were great series. we all remember Games of Thrones, that we saw on HBO, among many other works. The platforms, in short, had their place before starting this relationship. intimate enmity.

If we look at the box office figures, from 2012 to 2019 we can see how attendance at movie theaters grew year after year, coming from where we came from: the 2008 crisis. In 2019, the 100 million viewers. These years, so important for cinema, coincided with the arrival into our lives of Netflix, HBO, Prime Video, Filmin, FlixOlé o Disney+.

The fact that this coexistence occurred without major repercussions for the exhibition demonstrates, above all, that the society model and consumption model have changed.

The paradigm shift with the pandemic

The pandemic caused us to be locked up at home for two months, added to another period of time in which cinemas were not open. There were many restrictions, fear y communities that did one thing and others that did another. The national plan was not a plan, but rather seventeen, as many as there are autonomous communities. Some brave distributors released films knowing that they would be seen in Madrid, but perhaps not in other communities.

The platforms reacted to this period in different ways. The most severe bet was on the part of Disney, since it decided to release titles such as Red, Soul o Luca, which meant that cinemas total and utter ruin. For a time, it was only released in Spain independent cinema, which is an important engine of cinema and that made great numbers within its context, but it is not enough to sustain an entire industry.

During this period, whether due to the social environment, the offer of cinemas or the bets of the platforms, the society underwent a change. The phrase “We will come out of this better” was often said. I don't know if we have come out better or worse seeing how society is currently. What I know is certain is that we have came out different.

Five years later…

During these last years, we have had to learn to live in this consumption model. The industry itself has been adapting. Disney decided go back to the cinemas; platforms like Apple TV, perhaps due to its reduced reach in our country, decided to rethink the premiere of big bets like The Moon Killers to be in theaters for more than two months, and then there is the case of The snow society.

NowMore than ever, it is essential that producers, platforms, distributors and exhibitors let's get to agreements so that this new context sea cohabitable.

Even today, I can't figure out why it wasn't released in theaters, even if it was only in Spain. I don't know to what extent it wouldn't be more profitable for Netflix to decide to distribute the film in theaters and later on the platforms. The film premiered on December 15 and was already on the platform as of December 15. The Goyas were a month later, which would have allowed the film, with all the awards it received, to have been in full swing for more than two months, but not only that: the Oscars put the film back in the spotlight.

In any case, this reformulation of the platforms' bets is favoring let's return to that state of intimate enmity. Of course: now, more than ever, it is essential that producers, platforms, distributors and exhibitors reach agreements so that this new context is cohabitable.

A new agreement on display windows

The main agreement that should be reached is that of the display windows. We come from a film industry in which there were very strict deadlines. There was the window of cinemas, of the exit of physical formats and that of the exit of the television format. Now, this division no longer makes sense: the sale of blu-ray and DVD has been affected by the platforms' catalogues, which have impressive inventories that, in addition, often jump from one company to another. Many people ask the same question: Why am I going to buy the physical format of Everything at once everywhere If in two months I will have the film on Movistar Plus+ or on HBO?

The problem is that we run the risk that the rooms, like the physical format, become a romantic affair. The large number of weekly releases, along with direct releases on platforms or short exhibition windows, mean that some viewers are cultivating the feeling that it gives maybe go to the movies. In short, they will have it on Movistar Pus+, Netflix or HBO in a very short time.

We run the risk that the salas, just like the physical format, become an issue romantic.

It is evident that for the entire film industry it is sustainable, Cinema exhibition windows have to be better marked. The platforms need the theaters: they profit from the love of cinema, from that cinematographic culture. I don't think the platforms want a society in which there are fewer and fewer cinemas, because in the end fewer and fewer films will be consumed on platforms, the quality of production (and investment) in films will drop and you will miss that something special that differentiates this industry from other audiovisual entertainment such as, for example, podcasts or audiobooks.

The search for the middle ground between cinemas and platforms

It is important to create new agreements between cinemas and platforms, but there is no point in returning to the exhibition windows of a decade ago. The 128 days are not necessary, but the current three weeks of some original platform productions do not work either. It is necessary to sit down and ask the following question: “What if we make a eight-week interim window, so that the people who come to the premiere know that its premiere on platforms is not immediate and thus we can all achieve more capacity and more revenue?

For culture lovers, among whom I am, the ideal situation would be that the new Cinema Law will regulate these new exhibition windows, although the issue is very complex. Ideology is ideology, and politics is politics. Have two intimate enemies: exhibition in cinema and exploitation on platforms; on one side of the ring, one, and on the other side, another. What better than there being a arbitrator or mediator to decide what can and cannot be done, so that the “combat” is as fair as possible within a framework with certain guidelines or norms?

For lovers of culture, among whom I find myself, the ideal situation would be that the new Cinema Law regular is new display windows, although the question is very complex.

What happens is that whenever the state intervenes in private enterprise, a controversy. And limiting the “freedom” of the platforms in defining their releases could result in a loss of votes on the part of legislators, even though this could greatly benefit, ultimately, the film industry.

Looking to the future of display windows, it is necessary listen to the industry. But above all, we have to listen to each other more. We must leave egos and pride aside, dialogue more, understand the other party more and, above all, be willing to give in. If no one moves from their position it is very difficult for things to go well. Or at least es further difficult.