OTT-THEATRICAL MODEL UNDERGOES A MASSIVE CHANGE IN THE WEST; WILL INDIA FOLLOW SUIT?

Ever since the OTT platforms have come in India, the multiplex chains have devised a rule. If a filmmaker wants to screen his/her film in cinemas, he/she has to sign a contract with the multiplex chains stating that the said film won’t be given to a streaming platform until 8 weeks of its release. Most filmmakers accepted this rule. However, the sooner you give your film on OTT, the more you get paid. Hence, some filmmakers tried their luck and asked the multiplexes to let go of this rule for their films. The multiplexes, however, didn’t relent. In a few cases, it led to tensions. The Rajkummar Rao-Kriti Kharbanda starrer Shaadi Mein Zaroor Aana didn’t get a release in multiplexes for the first few hours on the day it came out. It’s only when the producer realized that he’ll lose out on revenue from multiplexes that he signed the eight-window contract. Only then did Shaadi Mein Zaroor Aana release, post 1:30-2 PM. The same happened a few weeks later with Vikram Bhatt’s horror film 1921. This film too arrived in multiplexes only post noon.

One of the first releases of this year was the long-delayed Shimla Mirchi, directed by Ramesh Sippy. He had got a lucrative deal from Netflix for which he had to release the film on their platform within 4 or 5 weeks. Multiplexes, naturally, didn’t agree and hence this flick had a release only in single screens! It was clear that the multiplex chains are quite adamant when it comes the 8-week-window rule.

In the West, it’s even more extreme. There, the films are supposed to be released on non-theatrical avenues only after 90 days of release. Netflix, meanwhile, made it clear that it’ll allow only four weeks in cinemas for it’s films like The Irishman, Marriage Story etc. The major chains there like AMC, Regal etc didn’t accept. Hence, these critically acclaimed flicks released in single-screens and smaller centres of North America and in other countries.

Earlier this year, Universal Pictures took a revolutionary step – it released it’s animated flick Trolls World Tour in cinemas on April 10. But footfalls got affected due to Coronavirus-induced lockdown. As a result, the same day, it was also released online but under the PVOD (Premium Video-On-Demand) model. Viewers had to pay $20 to catch the film. This step worked big time and reportedly, it set several streaming records. A surprised and motivated Universal then announced that they’ll do more of simultaneous theatrical and streaming releases from now on. An announcement of such nature angered the theatre chains. Adam Aron, CEO and president of AMC that their chain would no longer release a film that also drops online at the same time. Another chain, Regal cinemas, too put a statement to this effect.

However, around 10 days back, a sudden development left the global movie industry shocked as well as amused. AMC signed a deal with Universal wherein the theatrical window was shortened from 90 days to just 17 days! Also, once the film is released online, AMC would still get a cut out of these PVOD platforms. This makes it a win-win situation for all. It was also made clear that the bigger event films which would benefit from longer theatrical runs like Fast & Furious or Jurassic World sequels would not immediately go for a PVOD release.

Still, the development is a bit too unexpected. And if this is not enough, Disney’s much awaited flick Mulan too will release on it's Disney+ platform under the PVOD model. Viewers will have to pay a high $29.99 to view the movie, once it releases on September 4. This is mostly done as Coronavirus cases in USA are still high and theatres won’t be opening till the Mulan makes it to cinemas. Disney’s CEO Bob Chapek however insisted that this is a one-off decision taken by them and that it won’t be the norm for their future titles. Also, he assured that Mulan can be experienced on the big screen where countries where cinemas are open.

Mulan was going to be one of the two films besides Christopher Nolan’s Tenet which were to release in cinemas as soon as normalcy kicks in. With this decision to go digital, it means one film less and a further encouragement to those who feel ‘theatres are dead’!

Will these developments have any effect in India? Will producers here also demand a 17-day window instead of a 8-week window for digital release? Will they experiment with PVOD model with desi audiences? Only time will tell although trade experts believe that cinema halls are still safe in India. The footfalls in places like USA have been going down and hence, such steps were necessary. India, meanwhile is still a film-crazy country and hopefully, the pre-Covid model will be continued to be followed by producers and exhibitors alike.

Mayank Shekhar (MID-DAY; February 8, 2020)

Whether on social media or offline, one of the things I find sorely missing in all conversations on Bong Joon-ho's Parasite is how playfully the picture is plotted. People come out ruminating far more on the intensity of class-divide that the movie strikingly shines a light on. Don't let that bog you down about Bong's film. Which is already in Korean, with English subtitles, picking up an unprecedented six Oscar nominations, including for the Best Foreign Language Film, that it'll certainly take home.

I know how such a résumé intimidates mainstream audiences. Can't reiterate more: Parasite is an out-and-out fun film — to start and end with. Now go catch it, whether or not it wins Best Picture at the Academy Awards on February 9, Sunday night (Monday morning, for Indians).

For, the Oscars is not merely an award. It's a statement that the Academy makes, through the choice of its films, reflecting on the changing world. And the rich-poor divide expressed through Parasite is hardly a statement unique to 2020. What is?

Honestly, Taika Waititi's splendid farce, Jojo Rabbit. It's about a little boy in Hitler's Germany. Unless you've been living under a rock, or in complete denial (same thing), you know what the world is currently grappling with — authoritarian leaderships, pushed to the top by a brainwashed band of cult-worshipping adults, spreading hate against an imagined 'other' that they've been lulled into assuming the worst about. That's Jojo Rabbit, as a film. Will it win? No.

Because it's hard to match the film-making flourish of Sam Mendes in 1917, that remains the most anti-war film, in the history of war films. And God knows we could do with that statement too — now, more than at any time in the recent past. That said, just look at the competition — what a year it's been for Hollywood; or the Oscars, as it were.

In any other year, Todd Phillips's dark, deep Joker would've hoped to gobble up all the top trophies on its own. Probably won't. Even James Mangold's Ford v Ferrari could've been a front-runner, for all you know. Says a lot that the only Best Picture nominee that bored the crap outta me was Greta Gerwig's period piece Little Women (and that too because it just seemed too irrelevant in my buzzing head, that's all).

For a simple example, you only have to compare Guy Ritchie's pure gangster thriller The Gentlemen this year, which is in the sort of domain Quentin Tarantino could lord over in the '90s. Look at where Tarantino is, at present, as an auteur, at the top of his game, with the semi-fictional Once Upon A Time In Hollywood!

Speaking of which, those few who vaguely dismissed Martin Scorsese's The Irishman, because they found it long, or slow or whatever, I'm pretty sure, years down the line, will wonder what the hell they were thinking when the Master delivered his masterpiece. No, it's not Goodfellas or Casino. Mull over the final 30 minutes of The Irishman, and you'll see in it a genre being lifted to meditation on life itself.

No Hollywood studio was willing to touch The Irishman. Netflix pumped money into it. As producer, Netflix has the most nominations at the Oscars this year — Noah Baumbach's gut-wrenching Marriage Story, and Fernando Meirelle's unusually cinematic The Two Popes, being the other toasts for web as the new cinema! Academy ought to reflect this change on its prize-winners' roster.

Will they? Well, the only Oscar that Scorsese ever received was for the Hong Kong adaptation, The Departed (2006). Come on! And I don't even want to go into history and pluck out Orson Welles's Citizen Kane (1941), almost indisputably considered the greatest film in Hollywood history. It didn't win an Oscar. Which film did? How Green Was My Valley. What's that? Never mind. Just feeling better about listing films that should pick up the top awards this year. Won't feel terrible if they don't.

Oscar Predictions

Best Film: 1917
If not, then? Parasite

Best Director: Sam Mendes (1917)
If not, then? Bong Joon-ho (Parasite)

Best Actor: Joaquin Phoenix (Joker)
If not, then? Adam Driver (Marriage Story)*

Best Supporting Actor: Joe Pesci (The Irishman)
If not, then? Anthony Hopkins (The Two Popes)

Best Actress: Scarlett Johansson (Marriage Story)
If not, then? Charlize Theron (Bombshell)*

Best Supporting Actress: Margot Robbie (Bombshell)
If not, then? Laura Dern (Marriage Story)

Best Original Screenplay: Bong Joon-ho (Parasite)
If not, then? Quentin Tarantino (Once Upon a Time in Hollywood)

Best Adapted Screenplay: Todd Phillips (Joker)
If not, then? Anthony McCarten (The Two Popes)