Did Peacock Kill the Halloween Franchise?

Credit: Halloween Ends

Peacock has been a surprising contender for Netflix, Hulu, and the other streaming services that have been slowly killing Old Hollywood, likely due to its ownership from Universal and its sister properties that have helped fill the platform with worthy content. From original content on the platform like Craig Robinson’s Killing It to hit NBC series like The Office and Parks and Recreation, Peacock was a contender for Netflix before it removed its most popular series from the OG streaming service. However, with Peacock and its ability to get movies without needing to outbid other studios or streaming services, legacy franchises such as Halloween have taken a possible toll on the true sales that the film could have made entirely in theaters. Below, we’ve detailed the Halloween franchise, mainly since Peacock launched, as well as the overall impact Peacock has had on the Halloween franchise.

Credit: Halloween Ends

Peacock

As stated above, Peacock, before it had potentially killed the Halloween franchise, has always been a contender for the other streaming services, for several reasons, from the different tiers, the prices, offerings, live sports, and more. One advantage to Peacock, however, came from the parent company NBC and their ownership of NBC programming from Saturday Night Live to the earlier mentioned programming that has launched bidding wars similar to Friends in the past. Peacock users could either access Peacock with their cable subscription, with ads considered Premium, or access two other tiers, Free or Premium Plus. The main differences between the tiers are content and ads, which occur for up to five minutes per hour of watch time. Peacock had even attempted to premiere their late-night talk shows ahead of schedule on cable networks, but this was ultimately abandoned. Although the earlier scheduled talk shows never happened, Peacock offers a variety of live channels that users can access through the app, including news channels, live sports, and event coverage, such as Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade. Still, with the ownership of such a legacy horror franchise like Halloween, the viewership taken away from theaters may have ultimately killed the Halloween franchise on Peacock.

Credit: Halloween Ends

Halloween Franchise

The Halloween franchise, infamously starring Jamie Lee Curtis, premiered its first film in October 1978. A new film followed no more than every six years until the Rob Zombie-directed Halloween II, in which a nine-year gap existed between it and 2018’s Halloween. While it may seem as confusing as it may get, it gets even more confusing long before Peacock had been home for the newer releases of the Halloween franchise, which are equally as scattered as the continuity-abandoning films before it. While there have been numerous Halloween movies to fill the franchise over the years, the excessive sequels that abandoned much of the elements of the previous movies, themes, or plots, it wasn’t until 2018’s Halloween that Jamie Lee Curtis reprised her role and truly portrayed that same character from the earlier Halloween films. The most recent trilogy of Halloween movies was directed by David Gordon Green and written with beloved Pineapple Express actor Danny McBride. However modern and retconned, the writers had made the Halloween franchise to make their movie as plausible as possible with hardcore fans. Halloween Ends and its birth of a new killer didn’t attract audiences as much as Green, McBride, and others involved had hoped, which may have led to a consensus to question if Peacock killed the Halloween franchise or if the film was destined to fail without being available at home.

Credit: Halloween Ends

Did Peacock Kill the Halloween Franchise?

The Halloween franchise existed long before Peacock or streaming was a thought in mind. Still, as the streaming services have been the most likely sources for reboots and revivals, Peacock didn’t kill the Halloween franchise by exclusively releasing a new film in the now traditional sense. Still, Peacock added the film for service users, which ultimately meant free movie tickets at home versus sales at the box office. Anyone, especially fans of the entire franchise, could easily argue that any movie in the Halloween franchise, especially helmed by new directors, has the right to adjust the movie as they see fit. However, on paper, especially compared to the last changes applied to the Halloween franchise, the McBride-Green Halloween trilogy took a more innovative approach to a rewrite by writing a new sequel to the original film that would cancel out every single film before the newest trilogy. Ultimately, what may have killed the Halloween franchise, with the final Bumhouse Halloween movie, was the 60-day window Peacock gave its viewers to watch the film for no additional fee. Halloween Kills was available on Peacock the same day it was available in theaters, October 14th. Still, Halloween Kills only played in theaters for less than four weeks, less than 60 days, giving Peacock users the instant advantage and may have ultimately killed the Halloween franchise.