May the muffins be forever in your favour.So, the Generation 5 Movie will be a Netflix Exclusive..... · 2:22am Feb 23rd, 2021
Generation 5 is definitely going to be wonderful, especially with all the news confirming that it will be a sequel to Friendship is Magic and keep the same universe. But this is absolute yakshit:
https://variety.com/2021/film/news/paramount-my-little-pony-movie-netflix-1234902328/
The Generation 5 Movie will only come out on Netflix. This is a very stupid decision by Hasbro. As a response to covid-19 and what it means for cinemas, it flat-out sold the entire movie together with all the distribution rights (except for China) to Netflix. Instead of waiting.
There were better options to take. The movie was only planned for a release in cinemas on September 24th and once this date is here, most, if not all, people will be vaccinated and the virus won't be a threat anymore by then. So a cinema release would be perfectly possible on this date.
Or if Hasbro's doubts are really that big, it could have pushed back the movie's cinema release by a month or two. "My Little Pony" as a franchise is popular enough that the success of the movie wouldn't be harmed by this. Especially not with how much everyone wonders about Generation 5 and is already hyped about it.
Limiting the movie to Netflix will spell disaster for it. Not everyone has a Netflix account. Netflix closed out 2020 with 200 million subscribers in total. That might sound a lot and it might make Netflix the streaming service with the most subscriptions, but compared to the overall human population on Mother Earth, this number fades.
I think it's pretty clear that a lot more people are able to visit multiple screenings of a movie that happen in a cinema near them and to buy a movie on DVD or Blu-ray, than watching the movie with a Netflix subscription. And not everyone who doesn't already have one, will want to get a Netflix subscription. Especially not just to watch this one movie. People who aren't subscribing to Netflix and who are, like me, opposed to Netflix' monopoly behavior and hoarding the content it owns, will not make a Netflix account for seeing the movie. And with Netflix' content hoarding, it is unfortunately possible that we will not even get a home cinema release of the Generation 5 Movie, because Netflix wants that people only watch it on its own platform.
It is already very sad that we will not be able to see the new movie on the big screen now. But Netflix exclusivity will severely limit the reach of the movie and this could be devastating to the attention Generation 5 will get. A lot of people who oppose Netflix and don't want to support it will also have to pirate the movie once it comes out. Or rather, only when whoever is able to do that will bother to rip the movie from Netflix and to upload it on their illegal movie hosting site, so many, like me, will not even be able to see the premiere of the Generation 5 Movie.
I definitely wanted to save up money for seeing the movie in cinemas countless times like I did with Generation 4's movie and buy it on DVD/Blu-ray, to support Generation 5's development, but now this will be impossible.
Hasbro's decision here really sucks.
Stay easy as a filly!
~ Fluttercheer
While I think it’s weird that they put it on Netflix, I do still plan on watching it there. I can’t wait to see what the movie does! But yeah, I can also see how that’s a problem for people who don’t have Netflix like I and my family do.
5459613
I also can't wait to see what the movie does. But the big problem here, that is much bigger than the inability to see the Generation 5 Movie in cinemas, is the exclusivity Netflix has for the movies it owns:
https://collider.com/netflix-blu-rays/
Netflix refuses to release its Netflix Originals movies on Blu-ray. It wants to prevent people from watching the movies it owns on home cinema to sustain maximum revenue for itself. The Generation 5 Movie isn't a Netflix Original, but Netflix now owns the sole distribution rights to it. That means there won't be a DVD or Blu-ray release of the movie and the movie also won't be released on any other platforms. A lot of people will now not be able to see the movie, unless they pirate it, which not everyone dares to do even in today's times.
It's gonna make many people miss out on the movie and an extremely limited release like that means that the Generation 5 Movie will have much less reach than it could have with a release on multiple platforms and on home cinema. And considering that the movie is supposed to start Generation 5 and to promote the Generation 5 show, this could have a very severe impact on the attention Generation 5 will get once it starts. The movie's plot also seems to tie in with the plot of the show, which means it could be crucial to see the movie to understand what's going on in the show, and that means those who couldn't see the Generation 5 movie, will also not watch the Generation 5 show in the end because they lack the understanding and feel for it.
I'm not exaggerating when I say it spells disaster, such an extremely limited distribution of the movie that is supposed to kickstart Generation 5 and likely crucial for understanding what is seen in the Generation 5 show could lead to it that many people decide not to watch it. Bad marketing decisions made TV shows and movies tank before.
Hasbro already made a huge mistake here before Generation 5 even started and I am scared of what that might mean for Generation 5's future..... This could become very bad.
5459770
I see what you mean and you’re right. That does have me nervous too. The lack of eyes it’ll get this way is astoundingly dumbfounding to me too. Hasbro did mess up here. They did a big whoopsie. Everyone may end up buying the free trial to watch it tho. That’s the only way I can see this not blowing up in Hasbro’s face. Then again, not everyone does do Netflix free trials just for a single movie or two. We’ll see what happens and hopefully it surprises us and doesn’t bomb.