Shutters are down for the Indian division of the Hollywood studio Universal Pictures – their Indian office will close by the end of this year. While pandemic is only half the reason behind this move, their losses in the Indian market have forced them to shut shop. It’s sad that a prestigious production house that has made films like Jurassic Park, E.T, Fast & Furious in the past too is so vulnerable in the market.
From January 2021, Warner Bros will release all the films produced by Universal Pictures in India and the vice versa will happen in Australian and New Zealand markets. It’s a smart move that’s set to benefit both studios to distribute films in their stronger frontiers. Besides. The studios will also collaborate for production of digital content on their OTT platforms including HBO Max and Peacock.
Like every other Hollywood studio, Warner and Universal are doing their best to put together content for their own streaming platforms. In the future, more mergers are expected to happen between studios, like Fox and Disney. While this has every danger of ushering in a monopoly with only three-four studios controlling content around the world, it’s still a better bet than running studios that are financially unfeasible.
