James Cameron and Todd Philips are Wrong
The movie studios are getting set to create a new “Home Video Premiere” window with Direct TV first and Comcast and Vudu shortly thereafter. Exhibitors (industry parlance of theaters) are striking back with threats to market films in their theaters that will be part of this window. Change is so tough for the movie industry.
First of all Home Video Premiere is hardly same day and date. 60 days after a movie comes out this new VOD service will finally offer the new movie release. 60 days! That’s an eternity to a modern generation of filmgoers. Second, the movie costs 30 bucks. That’s real money. You might as well take a family of 4 to the theater. I see the studio offering a very reasonable progression. I don’t know how many ticket sales are done after 8 weeks, but I do know that the economics are heavily tilted towards exhibitors that late in the theatrical run.
I get that it’s tough for the exhibitor business, but I’m more interested in the studios finding a way to generate more revenue from their new product.
You can read more about all of this in Variety here.
