Universal Pictures hasn’t released hard numbers yet but the studio is claiming that their on-demand release of Trolls World Tour over the weekend broke records for the service.
Universal claims that the film had the biggest opening day and weekend of any digital title in history. The studio decided to break the theatrical window for the release of the film because of movie theater closures due to COVID-19. While most films delayed their release dates, Trolls World Tour had to adjust because they actually moved their release date up when No Time To Die vacated the Easter weekend box office. The studio had no way of knowing that theaters would shutter their doors soon after so they decided to work with what they had and market the video-on-demand release.
The film was available to rent on premium VOD for 48 hours for $19.99. The movie was made available to theaters still open which mostly consist of drive-in locations but Universal has decided not to report those grosses. Universal’s previous record holder for best opening day on digital was Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom and reports say Trolls did 10x more business on Friday compared to that film.
This is a we have to take their word for it scenario. I can’t see them boasting about a feat like this without the data to back it up but I wish they would release the numbers so we could see how well these premium digital titles were actually doing. Theater owners denounced Universal’s decision to handle the release of the Trolls sequel this way but if it paid off, will other studios follow suit? Only time will tell.
