“Wicked” is currently on PVOD. It was made available just a month after the film began its theatrical run. It doesn’t matter that “Wicked” was still racking up big money at the box-office ($400M and counting) — Universal believed the time had come to make it available for home viewers.
The numbers are in, and Universal says “Wicked” earned $70M in digital sales in the film’s first 7 days. The film reportedly made $26M in digital sales on New Year's Eve alone. These numbers are not only tops for any 2024 movie, but the biggest numbers in PVOD history.
According to third party researcher Samba, in the U.S. alone, almost 1 million homes watched the digital edition of “Wicked” in the first 6 days; that’s 53% more than “Deadpool & Wolverine.”
Now, before you call this a success, just think about the amount of money Universal gave up by chopping the legs out of their own theatrical run. It would have most likely hit $500M domestically. Recently, a studio boss told Deadline something that stuck with me about the current eagerness by Hollywood to send theatrical releases to PVOD after just a month of theatrical play:
If theatrical becomes just an advertisement for streaming or PVOD, the audience is going to begin to understand that. It removes the programmatic reason to go to theater.
Although PVOD has become a major source of revenue for studios, the shortening window between theatrical and home video is a cause for concern. At its essence, it dilutes theatrical moviegoing, and turns it into a less essential experience.
It’s no secret that struggling exhibitors must be very angry about Universal’s decision to ship this one out on digital so damn early. Fact remains that the pandemic forced studios to stream much of their new content. Many moviegoers have realized just how much more comfortable, and less headache-inducing, it is to stream a new movie at home than to go to their local cineplex.