Amy Adams’ thriller movie ‘The Woman in the Window’ was originally scheduled to release on 4th October 2019. But, the date was postponed to May 2020. Again, the release was put off due to the COVID-19 pandemic and now, the movie will be released on an OTT platform. With social distancing being an important part of the guidelines to be followed during the pandemic, getting the theatre industry back is difficult. A lot of movies that were scheduled to release this year have given their movie rights to Netflix, Amazon Prime, Disney Plus Hotstar, and more. Digital streaming has been normalized. ‘The Woman in the Window’ was acquired by Disney Plus in 2019. But, Netflix has recently acquired the rights from 20th Century FOX.
Firstly, Hollywood movies have numerous finished films lined up which were to be scheduled for their release and as they cannot put it out in theatres right now, they are giving some to the streaming sites. Secondly, Disney’s decision to dump the movie to the rival site shows that they do not have confidence in the movie. After many test screenings, the movie has undergone reshoots and was delayed for 6 months.
This has created a lot of confusion among the audience. Thirdly, and most importantly, Disney also has a lot of backlog movies pending. They will be releasing those movies in the theatres next year. Pawning off the movie to streaming sites does not earn as much as a theatrical release. But, it is better than them sitting in the corner collecting dust. The movie stars Amy Adams in the lead role. It is an adaptation from a best-selling novel with the same name.
A lot of Disney movies that were expected to be summer blockbusters have made their way to Disney’s competitors in streaming. 20th Century FOX released the trailer on 19th December 2019 on their official YouTube channel. It has already crossed 3.6 million views. You can watch the trailer below.
The movie is an R-rated thriller. It is not considered to be a good fit for Disney Plus as they are considered to be family-friendly. Details of the sales or any information regarding the deal have not been disclosed. Although they could have released the movie in Hulu, they didn’t because Hulu is only available in the US. For the international audience, they decided to go with Netflix.
All this action shows how the pandemic has affected Hollywood and how things happen in the movie business. They have started planning to release movies outside the US as the country getting the virus under control seems like a long way to go. The movie is worth the watch considering how well the book did.