The coronavirus pandemic has upended film exhibition practices, closing cinemas, delaying some releases and elevating other films to notoriety.

Case in point — Killer Raccoons 2: Dark Christmas in the Dark:

“Travis Irvine, the movie’s writer, director and producer, said that in the week it was ranked 13th, “Killer Raccoons 2” was the only comedy on the list — making it the No. 1 comedy film in the U.S. (“with many asterisks next to that,” he said).”

Writing in the Los Angeles Times, Ryan Faughnder quotes Bob Berney, of distribution firm Picturehouse:

“I do think that the pandemic has unleashed all options. It’s become a testing zone of every possible way of getting a film out there, and it’s going to take while before it gets set into some sort of pattern.”

This weekend we shall see which strategy wins: in one corner we have Mulan‘s paradigm-shifting Premium VOD and in the other we have Tenet‘s old school theatrical distribution. Tenet released internationally one week before its US debut, earning $53,000,000. With 60 million subscribers and a $29.99 ticket, Disney+ needs at least 2 million of its subscribers to pony up the extra cash to catch up to Tenet.

My take: If one strategy wins by a landslide, will the film industry follow en masse and forever change how movies are distributed?