Universal released Universal eschewed a theatrical release in favor of dropping Trolls World Tour onto video-on-demand platforms. It was an unprecedented move that could end up changing the way studios release movies.
Early into the coronavirus pandemic, Universal delayed the newest entry in the Fast & Furious franchise from May 2020 date to a new release date in April 2021. This new home for F9: The Fast Saga will see this blockbuster opening in theaters everywhere rather than going the video-on-demand route like Trolls World Tour. Why Universal has decided to embrace these differing release plans for Trolls World Tour and F9: The Fast Saga can be attributed to many factors, including what type of audience each film is targeting.
Streaming Trolls World Tour at home is an enticing proposition for that film's primary audience of families; children's movies get played on repeat once they hit DVD. Trolls World Tour's new release plan gets to that part of the movie's lifecycle much quicker. Frozen II onto Disney+ provides the same motivation for Trolls World Tour to debut on VOD platforms.
By contrast, there are far fewer benefits to debuting F9: The Fast Saga on VOD retailers. These kinds of blockbusters aren't as much of go-to home video staples as the average animated kids movies. Instead, F9 is the kind of spectacle-driven production audiences around the world make an effort to see on the biggest screen possible. That's a good thing for the franchise since its massive budgets require it to be lucrative in every potential box office market, particularly China. A VOD release for F9 could generate some profit, but there's no way such a release could match the massive worldwide box office seen by recent The Fate of the Furious.
Universal's reluctance to undercut gargantuan worldwide box office sums is the primary reason it's keeping F9 in the theatrical space. That's less of a concern for Trolls World Tour, which is following up a movie that was nowhere near the box office juggernaut that any Fast & Furious installment is. The first Trolls grossed $347 million worldwide, including just under $200 million internationally. That was fine but not spectacular business. Where Trolls really became profitable was in toys, home video sales and other marketing tie-ins. Even with a video-on-demand launch, Universal can still have Trolls World Tour engage in those lucrative markets down the road. The upsides for Trolls World Tour going the video-on-demand route are numerous. Meanwhile, F9: The Fast Saga would be limiting itself by going down the same road.
