New Movie Hits Theaters, TV, DVD on Same Day
Stephen Soderbergh’s new film ‘Bubble’ hits theaters, TV, DVD on same day today. What a neat way to release a movie and as you can expect, the theatre industry is not too happy. In fact many theatre chains have chosen not to play it! They are unhappy that they are not getting their traditional first rights to display the film.
Hmmmm. Maybe if you improved the movie going experience you wouldn’t have to worry about movie going fans saying “I think I’ll just buy this one on DVD”.
This is a simply a natrual progression of the industry. In the last few years there has been a distinctive shift in the focus of the Distributors. Their product no longer makes anyhting like the cash it used to from Theatrical takings, and income from DVD sales are far far greater.
I do feel for the exibitors (the theaters) to a certain degree, as they say the downturn in the box office is due to the quality of the pruduct, and the reduced window between release phases.
However, it is they that set the ticket pricing, and visiting the cinema has become a somewhat expensive exercise, so much off the balme has to fall at their feet. This is the root cuase of the diminishing window, and studio financiers demand quick returns on their investments.
Bubble is an interesting experiment, and is in my opinion a good move. It shows that the studio/distributors are increasing willing to see their products as just that, and offer flexability to film consumers as to how and when they wish to view a title.
Other titles will do this over the comng 12 months, with a those that dont have simultanious releases, having an even smaller release phase cycle. HDTV will also be a catalyst for this, with video on demand releases, VERY soon after general theatrical release.
Sure the exibitors arent going to like it, but this is going to happen more and more, and there is squat they can do about it.
They will have to evolve. Watching a film at the cinema is about more than just the film. Its’ and experice of vision, sound and scale. For those of us that dont have 25k5’s worth of home cinema equipment in our homes, wathcing a DVD is not the same. More importantly many films NEED the scale of the large screen for the viwer to truely be immersed in the experience.
The Exibitors have to build on this. I doubt prices for tickets will drop (it can be as much as £15 her in the UK) so if I’m going to part with that much cash I want added value.
It’s interesting times for those involved with the industry.
The problem, as I see it, is that the movie publishers want it all: they want to make the same crap movies over and over, they want high ticket sales, they want high DVD sales, they want high PPV sales, and they want to make the DVD available to you as you walk out of the theatre. The obvious problem is that something has to give, and when good electronics have come down in price so much over the past ten years its no wonder that so many people just splurge on a fancy TV et al then buy their DVDs. But of course its all piracy’s fault that people aren’t going to the theatres, or aren’t buying DVDs..
In fact, due to piracy, people *are* buying DVDs. Just not from Hollywood.
I read an interview (with Soderbergh, I believe) in which he spoke about this “simultaneous release.” His argument was that movies are available on DVD on the street the day they come out in the theaters anyway. Some of them are poor quality camcorder-in-the-theater versions, but some are leaked digital copies. So why shouldn’t the movie industry be the one doing the selling?