Universal Boss Donna Langley On Landing ‘Oppenheimer’, Oscar Controversy & How Day & Date “Doesn’t Work As Well” As Big Screen Biz – SXSW
deadline.comIn the first five minutes of his conversation with Universal Film Entertainment Group Chairman Donna Langley today at SXSW, CNN’s Frank Pallotta got to the aorta of what anyone in Hollywood wants to know from the studio boss: what’s the situation on theatrical-day-and-date, the state of moviegoing and whether the pandemic truly messed the business up.Asked first about if she had any regrets over her decisions during the pandemic, specifically the The Trolls World Tour initial day-and-date VOD move which sparked an uproar from exhibition before they were closed down for close to a year, Langley said, “I look back at all those decisions and I think they were right on.” This includes the annual push of F7 and the two-year push for Illumination’s Minions: The Rise of Gru.
Now, Universal like its rivals has experimented with the theatrical-day-and-date model with its streaming service Peacock, i.e.
pics like Boss Baby 2, Halloween Kills, Marry Me and the upcoming Blumhouse movie Firestarter. However, Langley acknowledged that form of distribution came as a result of Covid and “probably doesn’t work as well.
It impacts the business model of the movie, probably there is a comfortable middle ground.”“There’s some experimentation with Peacock going on,” said Langley about sending a movie like Marry Me to the Comcast streaming service.
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