With THE BATMAN buzz heading for a 3/4 launch to $150M+, the studios are sitting out this weekend & 2 post-TB weekends.
Hollywood used to counter-program to attract moviegoers who weren’t mega-blockbuster fans, but today studios sit back and save their marketing money. That’s why pandemic-era exhibitions become tentpoles-only businesses.
Studios are always slow to respond to the fast-changing marketplace. It takes years to develop & produce movies + many months to create marketing campaigns, nail down release dates & lock up media buys. The marketplace changes overnight and is doing so right now as Omicron ebbs along with adults’ pandemic fears about moviegoing.
The timing’s good for Hollywood since some likely hits are opening from late March through mid-April. The first of these, Paramount’s action-adventure comedy THE LOST CITY, will be star-driven by Sandra Bullock, Channing Tatum (just coming off DOG), Brad Pitt & Daniel Radcliffe.
Moviegoers are already finding LOST, per tracking reports. Its top definite interest demo is +25F (13 points over the norm four weeks out). That adult female interest makes sense since the jungle set story centers on Bullock as a larger-than-life romance novelist whose life is in danger.