Concerned about future home releases

[DMRI2006]

I don't know how this is going to play out but it's been 2 weeks of virtual lockdown here. That's it. 2 weeks. It definitely feels like forever, we all know it, but already people are freaking out and are ready to "cancel 2020" and everything for the end of the year. I guess that's natural but I don't see any rational reason to jump to that point. You cannot stop the economy for months on end -- it's not going to happen. We will have people running around during the summer regardless of "quarantine orders" but I think things will be gradually ramping up by then anyway. I mean, it's the beginning of April. As "long" as this feels (understandably) we've been sitting at home here for little more than 2 weeks.

The gap for home video won't be as bad as it will be for theatrical releases. A lot of stuff won't come out in the next couple of months on disc -- so those titles will be delayed and will show up afterwards as a result. Thus there will be a glut of product at once come summer (or whenever we're outside "the curve" enough to "resume life" or however you want to put it).

The movies are something else and theatrical product will obviously have a big gap. Maybe the studios will fill it with catalog titles for UHD instead? Would be nice to see for a change. If I were them I'd start planning some of this stuff now so they can jump into it once they are back and able to resume manufacturing. While it obviously won't generate the sales of a new release product, at least it's something, and the market is going to be starving.

Either way I am glad I have lots of physical media sitting around -- as I'm sure we all are -- but let's not throw the towel in on this year entirely. It'll be quiet for a while, no question, and theaters are going to suffer completely with a lack of product -- no doubt -- but if anything, home video/home media will have a big time audience going forward regardless. The appetite for people watching movies at home is going to remain and there are still many consumers using discs.

I think the much larger issue isn't discs -- it's theaters. Even when people "get out again," I can see theaters struggling both with lack of product AND people resisting going out into huge groups at the same time. This could have a long-term ramification for the industry, especially with people now being exposed to streaming and realizing, some probably for the first time, all the options they have at home.