You’ve probably heard this one: in the summer of 1975, Jaws invented the blockbuster. But it wasn’t just the broad appeal of the film that created this moniker. It was an unprecedented, large-scale release. As the New York Times recently noted, prior to Spielberg’s shark thriller, studios opened their top-tier films in limited theaters, slowly expanding them onto more screens. But with Jaws, execs decided to go big and put the movie in 450 North American theaters (then a huge figure), all at the same time. Jaws came out on June 20, 1975, and forever changed the way studios released films.
So wide appeal and wide release are essential to a blockbuster. Seems like a no-brainer. How, then, do we define blockbusters in a summer without movie theaters? With Netflix’s global pool of subscribers (182.8 million, at last count), scale isn’t the problem. (By comparison, there are about 40,000 movie screens in the U.S.) The films on streaming platforms are more accessible than any Marvel movie shown in theaters. But the first half of that equation, the appeal, is harder to measure. What does it take to create must-see entertainment in the streaming age?
So far, the closest thing the summer of 2020 has to a blockbuster may be Hamilton, which came out on Disney+ this past weekend and netted the platform a 74% jump in app downloads over the weekend. Though it’s unclear how many new subscribers that adds to Disney’s previously reported 50 million users. (It should be noted that Hamilton, for which Disney paid $75 million, was originally slated to go to theatres in the fall of 2021.) It’s significant that the highest-profile streaming release of the season is itself an iteration of a smash hit from another medium.
There are a number of reasons why it’s can be hard to generate buzz for streaming content. One is the sheer number of options available, which makes it difficult for films to stand out. The other is the lack of clarity around what defines success in the OTT universe. Instead of box office figures, numbers for streaming films rely on data supplied by platforms themselves. Despite the lower barrier to entry, without the social aspect (or pressure) of in-person moviegoing, there’s less reason to watch a movie just because everyone else seems to be doing it. Perhaps to combat this lack of hierarchy, back in February, Netflix released its Top 10 feature, a daily list of its most popular titles, designed to create more “shared moments while also helping all of us find something to watch more quickly and easily.”
The films that likely would have been this summer’s biggest hits, Christopher Nolan’s Tenet and Disney’s Mulan, have been pushed back multiple times. (In the U.S., each is currently slated for an August release.) Drive-ins are becoming more popular, but most have on repertory programming because studios simply aren’t releasing new movies. Instead, many studios have been surprisingly nimble in the past few months, bypassing theaters in favor of other digital avenues. Sony sold Greyhound, a Tom Hanks WWII film, to Apple. Warner Bros. released Scoob! on HBOMax. NBCUniversal released Trolls: World Tour on PVOD and made $100 million in rental fees. And of course, Studio71’s original content includes movies on platforms like Hulu (Plus One) and Netflix (Saving Zoe). Despite the lack of sold-out showtimes, there’s no shortage of new movies on small screens this summer.
