By David Poland poland@moviecitynews.com
The Perfect Experiment
Reading the Time Magazine piece on the future of downloading, Netflix’s Reed Hastings comments about the industries interest in maintaining multiple platforms made me think.
I am a proponent of actually slowing the process and returning to longer release-to-DVD window in most cases. But since that is not going to happen anytime soon, I think the studios have to start considering other alternative notions.
But with millions at stake, who will try it first. It won’t work with a failed movie, as the long-ago Pirates of Penzance day-n-date PPV option as the film was being released into theaters. And there is no chance that any studio is going to try a risky maneuver on a big action film, whether Spiderman 2 or Sky Captain & The World of Tomorrow.
What struck me is that a movie like I Heart Huckabees, with big names and art house expectations, might be the perfect title to experiment with. (Too late now, but you get the point.) If you could, in the 150 markets that will have the film available on one or two screens, pay $5 to get Naomi Watts, Jude Law, Dustin Hoffman, Mark Wahlberg, Lily Tomlin and everyone else in your home while the heat of the marketing effort is happening, wouldn’t you take a flier on it? Aren’t you even more likely to spend some money on the film now rather than when it is on a very busy shelf at Blockbuster?
The other thing is that risking a $20something million movie to see what the possibilities might be seems to be the kind of investment worth making. The future of PPV may well never lead to day-n-date on the big films. But what kind of upside would be possible for, say, a Paramount Classics or Sony Classics or Miramax’s smaller titles?
Someone’s gotta kick the future of PPV off sometime…
i know if there was a way to see theatricals at home, even weekend 2 of their release would make me much more likely to watch em. I dont know about for most people, but I know that I’m generally most interested in seeing a film at the beginning of its theatrical run, and by the time its hit video I’ve probably lost at least 50% of my inclination to see it, if not more. If there was like a 2nd weekend sneak preview or something where movie geeks could check out films at home they couldnt make it to in theaters, I’d definitely go for it.
seems like too much work for the studios. they only get off their asses when it starts invading their profit margin. not before. u won’t see something like this until it becomes real easy to download flicks online.