Paramount sharing The Lovebirds on Netflix, skipping theatrical release

On the heels of Trolls World Tour getting a simultaneous theater and streaming release on April 10 — and it seems doubtful any theaters will be reopened by that date — news now comes that Paramount is skipping a theatrical release and Netflix will be picking up The Lovebirds directly.

The Lovebirds marks the first studio movie that was pulled from a theatrical release that was placed at a non-studio streaming service. But Paramount does have a stand partnership with Netflix— a multipicture film deal that Paramount CEO Jim Gianopulos said would comprise “a small number of titles”.  The studio has previously released former theater-bound The Cloverfield Paradox with Netflix.

Paramount Sends ‘The Lovebirds’ to Netflix | Hollywood Reporter

No actual Netflix release date has been announced as of this writing, but they will probably release this sooner than later to capitalize on the marketing buzz.

This morning while I was driving Kara to work her in Vegas (she’s here on business, I’m here on vacation), we were talking about how there are some businesses that are doing just fine and maybe even benefiting from the current situation. Fast food restaurant sales have to be on the rise as well as some other restaurants offering take out and delivery (pizza sales got to be ahead of what they normally have this time of year).

Kara works in the grocery business and there are lines every single day outside her store when it opens. So many people, in fact, that security has to limit the number of customers in the store at one time.

So, it’s not all bad out there right now for everybody. Some are doing well. When I get back to my job, it’s pretty safe as well, considered to be on the “critical need” list, so I’m going to be OK too.

As for movies and this movie blog, however, there aren’t many new movies to talk about at the moment. Some regular features we have here — now playing reviews, opening this week in theaters movies — are all irrelevant at the moment. Am probably going to have to think up some new temporary replacement feature posts. I’ve also held off on posting any more “coming soon” posts because the landscape of what’s coming soon is wildly uncertain at the moment. I do have May queued up and was going to post that, but held off because I have no idea if theaters will be open in May and already the biggest movie in May (Black Widow) has moved its date. No point in making a coming soon to theaters post when theaters aren’t even open, so I’ll continue to sit on that one for awhile.

But that doesn’t mean there aren’t many movies and TV shows worth watching right now.

Yes, plenty of great movies and TV shows on streaming, so while you’re home and looking for something movie or TV-related to check out, perhaps give a streaming channel a try that you haven’t checked out yet? You likely already have Netflix and Amazon, but there’s always Hulu or one of the premium channels (HBO, Showtime, Starz, etc). Binge out what’s there and move onto another one. A good opportunity to catch up on a whole bunch great entertainment.

Theaters will be back in time. I know in Vegas here the hotels with casinos are taking reservations starting May 1. I’m not sure if that will be when everything starts opening again, that at least seems to be one date to look at with some hope as to life beginning to return to normal.

May 1, 2020. Not too far away. Six weeks or so. Crossing fingers.