Disney investor Dan Loeb pleaded the company to release Black Widow straight to streaming instead of waiting for its delayed theatrical release.
As the ongoing pandemic continues to disrupt the film and TV industry, Disney investor Dan Loeb urged the company to release Marvel’s Black Widow on streaming in a new interview with Variety. Although Disney CEO Bob Chapek had already ruled out a streaming release for Black Widow, Loeb explained that the company needs to invest more money in Disney Plus if the company is to rival Netflix in the long-run. He noted that Netflix has had years to build up a cycle of drawing in subscribers by creating more content, suggesting that Disney will be permanently disadvantaged if they don’t offer more for potential customers.
“What Netflix has is this immense subscriber base that allows it to invest in an enormous amount of content and amortize that to get more subscribers. Disney isn’t there yet, but they need to get there as quickly as possible. If they don’t get critical mass in their subscriber base, they will be permanently disadvantaged versus Netflix.”
The investor went on to say that he thinks some of the executives don’t want to “go over the top” with larger movies like Black Widow, which is the reason behind the delays. But Loeb also pointed out that they could make a significant return if the film is released to streaming, since it would likely bring in a large number of new subscribers. There’s a similar conversation taking place around Patty Jenkins’ Wonder Woman 1984, although the director is adamant that the DC film will only have a theatrical release.Take a look below.
“My understanding is that the old-line executives don’t want to go over the top with their big tentpole movies, which is why they announced they were pushing Black Widow and other movies to 2021. I don’t think they appreciate the tiger they have by the tail, which is to say the value they can drive by moving into a subscription model, which has been adopted by everyone from Microsoft to Amazon. It’s so value accretive.”
Do you agree with the Disney investor? Should Marvel Studios release Black Widow to streaming? Or do you think the film deserves a theatrical release? Sound-off in the comments below!
Here is the official synopsis for Black Widow:
In Marvel Studios’ action-packed spy thriller “Black Widow,” Natasha Romanoff aka Black Widow confronts the darker parts of her ledger when a dangerous conspiracy with ties to her past arises. Pursued by a force that will stop at nothing to bring her down, Natasha must deal with her history as a spy and the broken relationships left in her wake long before she became an Avenger.
Directed by Cate Shortland from a script written by Eric Pearson based on a story by Jac Schaeffer and Ned Benson, the film stars Scarlett Johansson, David Harbour, Florence Pugh, O-T Fagbenle, Ray Winstone, Olivier Richters, and Rachel Weisz.
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Source: Variety
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