Boxofficeguru.com Editor Gitesh Pandya joins Yahoo Finance’s Brian Sozzi, Alexis Christoforous, and Dan Roberts to discuss the record-breaking rental release of ‘Trolls World Tour’, and what it means for the movie theater industry.

Video Transcript

BRIAN SOZZI: Welcome back to Yahoo Finance Live. Now, Universal Pictures' "Trolls World Tour" shook up the movie industry when the studio decided to release the highly anticipated movie for rental due to the coronavirus instead of in the theater, like originally planned. The film has already racked in nearly $100 million in just three weeks. Joining us now to discuss is boxofficeguru.com editor Gitesh Pandya, and Yahoo Finance's editor at large Dan Roberts is back with us.

Gitesh, good to speak with you again here this morning. Do you think what happened with "Trolls World Tour"-- is that a blueprint for what we should expect moving forward?

GITESH PANDYA: Well, I think that it's sort of an individual situation. This is a movie that was intended to have a 4,000-screen release, just like any other major animated film. But because of the coronavirus pandemic shutting down theaters, they had to change it on the fly. Most movies were delayed to summer, fall, next year. But with this one, it was a different case where they wanted to put it into homes right away at a premium price, $20, instead of the usual $6 or $7.

And so, obviously, AMC is the major exhibitor who was not happy about this because they want these movies in their theaters right away, not at home. So they've had a lot of drama, Universal and AMC over the last 24 hours. But I think in the long run they will kiss and make up. I think that they need each other. They're like peanut butter and jelly. You ever have a peanut butter sandwich? It's disgusting.

These two need each other. They will work together. And the other theaters will work together as well. However, I think what you will see is some of the smaller films and sometimes some of the family movies going this route and skipping theatrical in order to minimize risk.

DAN ROBERTS: Hey, Gitesh. Dan Roberts here. You know, I agree that Trolls and the success of that rental doesn't necessarily mean, you know, movie theaters are dead. I think people are kind of out over their skis going too far with that analysis.

GITESH PANDYA: Right.

DAN ROBERTS: With that said, while we are still in quarantine, or at least while many states are doing stay at home, you wonder what other kinds of movies might come out straight to rental. I know there is one coming that's a Judd Apatow movie, a comedy, and that's going straight to rental. Something like "Black Widow," obviously, would do well enough in theaters that they wouldn't want to do that.

But do you foresee, especially if this time lasts a few more months, other big movies trying the Trolls route?

GITESH PANDYA: Some of them, yes. I think that-- and this has already been happening before the theaters shut down, is that you have this dichotomy. You have the division of the major leagues and the minor leagues. So the major league films, superhero movies, actions sequels, and so on, they need that big screen experience. But some of the smaller and medium-size films, some sequels from older brands, which may not sell anymore, the risky ones, I do think that studios we'll look at some of those players on the bench and say, you know what? This does not need a major league release in theaters. Instead, we'll go straight to streaming.

Many of the studios now own their own streaming services, or are about to launch them, like HBO Max and Peacock coming up. So they need content for that. And I think it's going to be a case-by-case basis. And we are already seeing some of that with movies that were supposed to come out this spring. Instead of being delayed, they're going straight to Netflix or Amazon or some other streaming service.

And I think that, depending on the genre, R-rated comedies, for example, have done very poorly at the box office over the last two to three years. So it makes sense that some of the ones coming up in that category are going straight to streaming because the studios don't want to risk losing money.

- Gitesh, it's kind of ironic. The Academy of Motion Pictures was standing strong, saying in order to be eligible to win an Oscar, a film has to be in the theater for so many days. Now they've changed their tune, announcing yesterday that a movie has to be on streaming for a certain amount of time, not in the theaters, in order to be eligible for an Oscar. What is Oscar 2021 going to look like to you?

GITESH PANDYA: Well, it will be a little bit different. The Academy-- I got the press release yesterday, and I was analyzing what exactly they were saying. And it is for one year only. It's only for the 2020 calendar year for the ceremony happening next February. And it's mostly because you have a two-, three-, four-month period where theaters are closed and you can have these movies qualifying. You have to play in LA County for one week straight, at least three shows per day, in order to qualify for most of the major categories. So that's not possible for a number of films right now, and there's a bottleneck coming up later.

So I think, you know, you might see some of those movies that we're going to release and are instead going to streaming have a chance to qualify. Now, it doesn't mean that they'll get Oscar nominations. It still has to be a good movie. And you know, let's be honest, some movies are garbage and some movies are quite good. So that criteria still matters.

But one thing to add to that is that we have had for decades in this industry the parallel universe of movies opening in theaters and movies going straight to video-- VHS, DVD, streaming. So it's just a matter of studios still having that and deciding what goes straight to streaming or onto a home entertainment platform, even if it's premium VOD. It's been happening before. It'll keep happening now.

And the thing with Trolls was that it was sort of getting a gift, and then having to get taken back. And you get offended by that, obviously. And the theaters were promised that movie, and instead it went to VOD and some drive-in theaters at the same time. That didn't go over well. But I think in the long term, I don't think it should matter too much.

DAN ROBERTS: So Gitesh, what you're telling us is "Sonic the Hedgehog" won't be a best picture, I guess, at the Oscars.

GITESH PANDYA: It could be up for Best Picture and Best Director. I'm getting my Blu-ray in the mail pretty soon. I'll watch it soon.

DAN ROBERTS: Very quickly while we have you. I know we have to wrap, but just your take on the success of the various streaming services amid coronavirus. Great numbers for Disney Plus, which has all the "Star Wars" movies but obviously, the longer this lasts, these services won't be getting new movies.

GITESH PANDYA: Right. Well, you know, you have a studio compete at the box office with theaters, but they also compete now on the streaming side. So Disney Plus has done a very good job of getting content that excites people, and getting it right away. They have that supply chain of all the big movies. So they have an advantage, plus a low price point. So it's a great value for consumers. It's going to be a challenge for Universal and Warner Brothers coming up. And look, with all these movies and people stuck at home watching content, you're going to see more subscribers on these streaming services.

BRIAN SOZZI: All right, let's leave it there. Gitesh Pandya, Box Office Guru founder. Yeah, I don't know about "Sonic the Hedgehog," but I'm looking forward to watching it nonetheless. Good to speak with you again.

GITESH PANDYA: Thanks for having me.