MICHAEL MYERS IS BACK ON THE SILVER AND SMALL SCREENs
By Sean Lanigan
Universal has made the decision to release Halloween Kills in movie theaters and on the Peacock streaming service on October 15th. In the times of the pandemic and advances in video technology, the collaboration between movie studios and streaming services seems to be a growing trend.
Edison Gutierrez, a sophomore film student at Five Towns College, believes in this strategy:
“As we recently saw with Disney Plus, they sent their recent movies like Mulan and Black Widow [to streaming platforms], and Peacock already has done it with movies like The Boss Baby. The Halloween franchise is a popular enough franchise in my opinion to boost Peacock streaming subscribers.”
Unlike other types of movies, horror films don’t seem to be harmed by the rising popularity of streaming services. According to CNBC.com, horror movies remain a moneymaker for movie studios because traditionally, the films are made on much smaller budgets. Also, the rise of the delta variant has led to movie studios’ continued concern about the box office behavior of movie fans of all different genres. Earlier this year, we saw Sony Pictures Animation skip the theaters for the movie Hotel Transylvania: Transformania and sell the rights directly to Amazon for over 100 million dollars.
To some movie fans, you can’t beat the feeling of going to a movie theater. Giancarlo Estrada, a graduate of Five Towns College and the current videographer for the Film Department, explains the importance of the theater experience:
“It’s tough because as a film student, you appreciate that the artist is putting their work in theaters on that big screen to be appreciated by as many people as possible, but we are in a different time.”
The first Halloween movie was released in theaters in 1978 and at the time, was one of the most financially successful independent films that existed. Since then, it has become one of the most popular horror movie franchises of all time and it is often credited for being the template for 1980s slasher films.
