Universal's TROLLS WORLD TOUR Has the Biggest Digital Release Ever
Universal Pictures released Trolls World Tour digitally over the weekend, and it ended up making a huge splash! The movie ended up landing the biggest debut for a digital release ever.
Over Easter weekend, families flocked around their TV’s to watch Trolls World Tour. The movie was originally supposed to be released in theaters, but after the coronavirus hit and movie theaters shut down, the studio opted to release it digitally, and that move seems to have worked out for them really well.
The studio hasn’t released the statistics yet, but they are reporting that it is the No. 1 title across major on-demand video platforms, including Amazon, Comcast, Apple and FangandoNow. Universal also confirmed that the film had the biggest opening day and weekend for a digital title, generating approximately 10 times more than the next-largest traditional premium home video release.
FandangoNow backed up the report announcing that Trolls World Tour saw the best weekend sales in the history of its streaming service.
“Following weeks of anticipation for its home premiere, ‘Trolls World Tour’ is now FandangoNow’s streaming debut champ, with the best preorders, first day and opening weekend sales we’ve ever seen,” FandangoNow head Cameron Douglas said in a statement. “We’re pleased that families looking for a much-needed entertainment break are enjoying DreamWorks Animation’s latest movie on our service.”
One thing we don’t know yet is if the movie will make as much money on premium digital as it would have had in theaters. I imagine that if the studio is boasting about the film breaking this record, the amount it made must have impressed them.
Variety reports that home entertainment figures aren’t reported in the same fashion as traditional box office grosses. They also note that “comparable data is difficult given the unprecedented move, so the studio plans to wait for a clearer picture of results over the next few weeks before disclosing more specific statistics.”
The movie, which stars Justin Timberlake and Anna Kendrick, had a budget of $100 million, and it’ll be interesting to learn if the movie actually ends up making a profit with the digital release. I expect the movie would have made more in theaters if the world was normal, and while we will see more studio movies released digitally like this, it’s temporary, and I don’t think it will kill the theatrical movie-going experience.