Friday, April 01, 2011

Multiple Studios Look to Release Titles on VOD

Many times, there’s that one movie everyone talks about. It’s been out for a few weeks, and everyone’s seen it but you. Maybe you feel a bit left out since you don’t know what all the fuss is about, or maybe you’re genuinely curious.

Either way, you have to drive all the way to your nearest cinema to catch the film. Then you have to pay for tickets and concession items, not to mention potentially dealing with small children or overly talkative movie watchers.

Well, you won’t have to put up with all of this too much longer depending on the studio releasing said film. According to Variety, Fox, Sony, Warner Bros., and Universal plan to utilize Home Premiere, where their theatrical releases can be “rent[ed] for $30 two months after their theatrical bows for a viewing period of two to three days, depending on the distributor.”

This is currently scheduled to hit almost 20 million individuals next month via DirecTv. Sony’s Just Go With It and Warner Bros. release Unknown look to be the first films available with Home Premiere.


THR relays what Todd Phillips of The Hangover fame had to say about this to theater owners while at CinemaCon:

"I'm on your side on the video-on-demand issue. And I think a lot of filmmakers are. If I had wanted to make movies for television, I would have been a TV director.”

Though there’s definitely an advantage in being able to legally watch the biggest new releases at home, part of the fun of watching a new movie is watching it at the theater. Also, though there’s nothing wrong with television as a format, Phillips has a point. With Netflix Instant – an innovation that I love by the way – we’re nearing the point where there’s a distinct blur between watching a movie and having a movie-going experience.

I love VOD after a thetrical run but I don't like this idea Might as well say directors are doing TV and nothing else: The director in me says Something Special about theater viewing...Go Todd!--Tom TLR Editor

How do you feel about this situation with VOD?

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