A Quiet Place: Day One's Streaming Date Highlights A Big Hollywood Problem

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"A Quiet Place: Day One" blew everyone away at the box office its opening weekend, scaring up just under $100 million worldwide. One would imagine a good chunk of that is from people who wanted to see the magnificent Frodo the cat, but a win is a win no matter how you slice it. It's particularly good news coming off the doom and gloom of "Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga" bombing financially, which a lot of people took to be a dire sign for cinema. That's what makes the digital release of "A Quiet Place: Day One" somewhat confusing.

After just a few days in theaters, it was announced the horror prequel would be available digitally on platforms like Google, Amazon, and Apple starting on July 30. That means the flick will only be in theaters for about a month before people can buy or rent it at home, and one would assume there would be a significant dip in its box office haul once that happens. It all points to Hollywood not knowing how to handle digital releases. With this kind of hype in addition to solid reviews, including Looper's "Day One" review that hails it as excellent addition to the franchise, the movie could feasibly make a lot more money if kept off such platforms for a while.

Releasing it digitally so soon also deters people from seeing it in theaters now that they know they can watch it at home in a few weeks for considerably less money (especially if they want to see it with a group of people).

Fans online think A Quiet Place: Day One's digital release is a bad idea

When news of the streaming date for "A Quiet Place: Day One" broke, most people were in consensus that studios don't know what they're doing. On X (formerly known as Twitter), @ThisIsRileyJack wrote, "This is so beyond offensive. Streaming is awful and a plague to cinema." Similar sentiments were shared by @johnwright79: "This is getting silly now. Clearly a film that has great word of mouth (excuse the pun) and plenty of legs. They are actively ruining their own business model."

Lately, movies tend to get a quick turnaround from theaters to streaming when they do poorly. "The Fall Guy" and "Furiosa" witnessed this first-hand, but they were both classified as flops during their opening weekends. "A Quiet Place: Day One" became the highest grossing horror film of 2024 in just a few days, and with a $67 million budget, it should turn a tidy profit even if it goes digital in a month. It just feels like the theatrical window is less special when studios don't give their movies breathing room. Plenty of films need a few weeks or even months to get word of mouth to spread, which was the case for last year's "Elemental" from Pixar, an animated flick that eventually found a spark and became profitable after not doing too hot its opening weekend.

Years ago, when movies wouldn't be available for home release for months after the theatrical window, there was an incentive to see it. Who knew when the chance would come again? Now, that experience is changing, but hopefully, people still make the trek to theaters to see something truly great on a big screen where it was meant to be seen.