2021. This is the year that movie theaters and streaming services are definitely going head to head in competing for people’s eyeballs for the big American July 4th weekend at the movies.
From the movie theater side, we’ve got an aging horror series entry in “The Forever Purge,” an indie film in “Zola,” and an animated franchise release with “the Boss Baby: Family Business.” It should be noted, that there are a few more limited released films, but I’ll stick with the high profile releases. It should also be mentioned that “the Boss Baby” movie is also simultaneously available for streaming on Peacock TV.
In the streaming side of things, we’ve got Netflix releasing the animated film “America: The Motion Picture,” and the slasher flick “Fear Street: Part 1 - 1994.” HBO Max is releasing the Steven Soderbergh crime film “No Sudden Move.” Amazon Prime Video has the Chris Pratt sci-fi action blockbuster “The Tomorrow War.” Hulu is a little more down key by it’s release of the documentary “Summer of Soul.” Plus as mentioned before, Peacock TV has “the Boss Baby: Family Business” available to it’s subscribers as well.
Between the movie theater July 4 weekend releases and the streaming services’ offerings, you’ve got to admit, the latter reflects the holiday weekend much better. The biggest ammo that movie theaters actually have for the weekend is “F9: The Fast Saga” doing it’s second week of release. The biggest advantage that streaming services have are having even more variety of choices.
This is where we seem to be at now for watching movies. Straight to home releases are a legitimate choice for movie goers now. Should we embrace the change or push back a little bit?