In what may look like the new normal after the coronavirus pandemic, Universal has announced that “Trolls World Tour” has made more money for them in three weeks than the first “Trolls” movie did in five months.

CNBC reports that “Trolls World Tour” has made nearly $100 million in digital rentals. While the first “Trolls” movie earned $153.7 million for Universal after its five-month run, the studio had to split 50 percent of that revenue with theater owners. By releasing it on digital, Universal was able to keep 80 percent of the movie’s revenue.

CNBC believes that the lucrative returns brought about by the decision to go digital is what prompted Universal to have Judd Apatow’s “The King of Staten Island” on video-on-demand rather than in moviehouses.

The decision to move more movies to on-demand has certainly not gone over well with theatre owners, with AMC Theatres even declaring that they would no longer be screening any Universal movies in any of their theatres around the world. This is a big decision to make as the global film industry is set to lose $5 billion due to the coronavirus pandemic.

Nevertheless, NBCUniversal CEO Jeff Shell stood by the decision. According to The Hollywood Reporter, Shell himself doesn’t see video-on-demand replacing theatres anytime soon, insisting that premiering films on that platform serves as a complement to the conventional theatrical release.

Shell called the success of “Trolls World Tour” as a sign of how they will be releasing movies in the future. According to him, they would be releasing films in both formats as soon as theatres open.

Exactly when moviehouses will open is still up for debate. Even with states like Texas allowing them to reopen, owners themselves are reluctant to do so without new films to show.

There is also the matter of moviehouses having to adopt new practices while there is no vaccine or cure yet for the coronavirus. Even now, infections continue to rise around the world, In the Apr. 30 situation report of the World Health Organization, there are now 3,090,445 people who are confirmed to have COVID-19. New cases are at 71,839. Globally, COVID-19 fatalities are now at 217,769 people, with 9,797 of those being new deaths.

Meanwhile, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said in its Apr. 30 update that there are 1,031,659 confirmed COVID-19 cases in the country. Deaths caused by COVID-19 in the United States are now at 60,057. Of that total, 2,552 are new deaths.