Studios and Movie Theaters have been on contentious terms for many years now, but rarely has the arguments grown so heated as they have over the studio’s latest scheme to combat shrinking DVD sales. The DirectTV premium on-demand service is the controversial program in question, and it would allow home viewers to purchase a 48-hour full HD rental of a film while it’s still in theaters (starting 60 days after release) for $30.00. This so enraged the increasingly struggling theater owners that they’ve threatened to restrict the studios’ ability to market their films to theater goers- an important channel of promotion to a sympathetic audience.
The back and forth hasn’t halted the march of the program though, and according to a DirectTV announcement it will begin Thursday with Just Go With It (the execrable-looking Adam Sandler comedy). That title will soon be followed by others like Cedar Rapids, Hall Pass, and The Adjustment Bureau, all in surround sound and 1080p.
There are a ton of caveats to this whole thing, not least of which is that only 6 million or so customers even have this option available to them, as it requires the cable provider’s HD DVR set-up. There’s also the point that the “1080p” film likely still streams at a low data rate that is a pale shadow of Blu-ray, and that the selection of movies is (mostly) garbage for something that costs 30 fucking dollars. That said, only the price is likely to bother most consumers, and even if the program isn’t a credible threat to theatrical grosses yet, it does set a dangerous precedent.
It is that possibility for the program to grow into something truly damaging that frightens more of the industry than just the theater owners, which has inspired the dreamers of the dreams themselves to take action. Drafting an open letter politely asking to be included in the conversation, nearly two dozen notable filmmakers have attached their names to a call for a reexamination of release strategies.
Make no mistake: History has shown that price points cannot be maintained in the home video window. What sells for $30-a-viewing today could be blown out for $9.99 within a few years. If wiser heads do not prevail, the cannibalization of theatrical revenue in favor of a faulty, premature home video window could lead to the loss of hundreds of millions of dollars in annual revenue. Some theaters will close. The competition for those screens that remain will become that much more intense, foreclosing all but the most commercial movies from theatrical release. Specialty films whose success depends on platform releases that slowly build in awareness would be severely threatened under this new model. Careers that are built on the risks that can be taken with lower budget films may never have the chance to blossom under this cut-throat new model.
Further, releasing a pristine, digital copy of new movies early to the home will only increase the piracy problem—not solve it.
This is no grassroots petition- have a look at the names signing the letter:
Michael Bay
Kathryn Bigelow
James Cameron
Guillermo del Toro
Roland Emmerich
Antoine Fuqua
Todd Garner
Lawrence Gordon
Stephen Gyllenhaal
Gale Anne Hurd
Peter Jackson
Karyn Kusama
Jon Landau
Shawn Levy
Michael Mann
Bill Mechanic
Jamie Patricof
Todd Phillips
Brett Ratner
Robert Rodriguez
Adam Shankman
Gore Verbinski
Robert Zemeckis
The rest of the letter is below.
The directors’ best point is the question of how long that $30 price-point will be sustainable, as it really is easy to imagine it sliding down in price sooner rather than later. It’s difficult to believe people will choose to pay $30.00 for a movie that, while still in theaters, has more than likely lost all of its energy in the zeitgeist. Would you really want to pay $30.00 for a dumb romantic comedy that nobody is talking about anymore when there’s plenty of cheap/free rental/streaming options online that have other dumb romantic comedies that you’ve meant to see?
That said, this letter won’t make much of a difference, no matter how impressive the list of names is. Studios care about their talent, but they’re not going to defer to a letter full of frequently argued points when they’ve already ignored a legitimate threat to their wallets from the theaters. They’ve heard the doomsday scenarios and still they plow forward with their shortsighted decisions, a tug on the heartstrings for independent/platforming films means nothing.
There’s more to be said about how a film’s audience is changing with modern times, and you can expect more commentary on the subject soon. Until then, let us know if you plan on exploiting this DirectTV program, or if you’d be interested in something like it for whatever service you do use.
Source | Deadline, THR, (via /Film)
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AN OPEN LETTER FROM THE CREATIVE COMMUNITY ON PROTECTING THE MOVIE-GOING EXPERIENCE
We are the artists and business professionals who help make the movie business great. We produce and direct movies. We work on the business deals that help get movies made. At the end of the day, we are also simply big movie fans.
Lately, there’s been a lot of talk by leaders at some major studios and cable companies about early-to-the-home “premium video-on-demand.” In this proposed distribution model, new movies can be shown in homes while these same films are still in their theatrical run.
In this scenario, those who own televisions with an HDMI input would be able to order a film through their cable system or an Internet provider as a digital rental. Terms and timing have yet to be made concrete, but there has been talk of windows of 60 days after theatrical release at a price of $30.
Currently, the average theatrical release window is over four months (132 days). The theatrical release window model has worked for years for everyone in the movie business. Current theatrical windows protect the exclusivity of new films showing in state-of-the-art theaters bolstered by the latest in digital projection, digital sound, and stadium seating.
As a crucial part of a business that last year grossed close to $32 billion in worldwide theatrical ticket sales, we in the creative community feel that now is the time for studios and cable companies to acknowledge that a release pattern for premium video-on-demand that invades the current theatrical window could irrevocably harm the financial model of our film industry.
Major studios are struggling to replace the revenue lost by the declining value of DVD transactions. Low-cost rentals and subscriptions are undermining higher priced DVD sales and rentals. But the problem of declining revenue in home video will not be solved by importing into the theatrical window a distribution model that cannibalizes theatrical ticket sales.
Make no mistake: History has shown that price points cannot be maintained in the home video window. What sells for $30-a-viewing today could be blown out for $9.99 within a few years. If wiser heads do not prevail, the cannibalization of theatrical revenue in favor of a faulty, premature home video window could lead to the loss of hundreds of millions of dollars in annual revenue. Some theaters will close. The competition for those screens that remain will become that much more intense, foreclosing all but the most commercial movies from theatrical release. Specialty films whose success depends on platform releases that slowly build in awareness would be severely threatened under this new model. Careers that are built on the risks that can be taken with lower budget films may never have the chance to blossom under this cut-throat new model.
Further, releasing a pristine, digital copy of new movies early to the home will only increase the piracy problem—not solve it.
As leaders in the creative community, we ask for a seat at the table. We want to hear the studios’ plans for how this new distribution model will affect the future of the industry that we love.
And until that happens, we ask that our studio partners do not rashly undermine the current – and successful – system of releasing films in a sequential distribution window that encourages movie lovers to see films in the optimum, and most profitable, exhibition arena: the movie theaters of America.
We encourage our colleagues in the creative community to join with us by calling or emailing NATO at 202-962-0054 or nato@natodc.com.
Sincerely,
Michael Bay
Kathryn Bigelow
James Cameron
Guillermo del Toro
Roland Emmerich
Antoine Fuqua
Todd Garner
Lawrence Gordon
Stephen Gyllenhaal
Gale Anne Hurd
Peter Jackson
Karyn Kusama
Jon Landau
Shawn Levy
Michael Mann
Bill Mechanic
Jamie Patricof
Todd Phillips
Brett Ratner
Robert Rodriguez
Adam Shankman
Gore Verbinski
Robert Zemeckis