January 12, 2006 4:00 AM PST
Soderbergh does a DVD-theater release combo
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another nearby town. Soderbergh has pegged its budget at about $1.6 million, a pittance even by art film standards. The film tells the story of a love triangle and murder at a doll factory.
For Wagner and Cuban, the simultaneous DVD release represents a business decision more than an ideological statement. Their analysis of the movie business led them to bring as much of the distribution chain as they could under their own control, including buying the Landmark Theatres chain, releasing DVDs themselves and distributing films on Cuban's HDNet channels.
Releasing a film on all three platforms at once allows them to save on marketing expenses, which can be crippling for a small film, Wagner said. They'll do the same thing with seven or eight films in total over 2006, charging more for the early release DVDs than for a typical home video, he added.
"This way we can cut through the clutter once, spend the money once and allow people to buy it however they want to consume it, whenever they want to watch it," Wagner said. "Imagine that, literally listening to consumers."
The 1 percent solution
The entrepreneurs are adamant that they're not trying to undermine the cinema business. After all, they're theater owners now themselves. They're offering to set aside 1 percent of DVD revenues for this and future similar releases, divvying it up between theater owners who agree to distribute their films. They say their projections show that theater owners can ultimately make more money this way, as more people see the films.
Greg Laemmle isn't convinced. He runs the arty Laemmle Theatres chain in Los Angeles and has even carried some of Wagner/Cuban's earlier work, including the Enron documentary "The Smartest People in the Room," which ran on Cuban's HDNet while still in theaters.
His chain has carried movies like "Ray" and "Lost in Translation" that came out on DVD while still in their theatrical run, and ticket sales almost immediately fell off precipitously, he said. Nothing Cuban and Wagner have said has changed his mind.
"God bless them, they own films, and they own chains, and we will watch with curiosity," Laemmle said. "But the reality is, we've seen the impact that DVD release had on grosses, and there wasn't a lot of business left."
All of this is a lot of pressure to put on a tiny-budget murder mystery filmed using local citizens as actors. National Theater Owners Association Executive Director John Fithian said the attention paid to the release has been out of proportion to its real merit.
"If I was Todd Wagner, I would try to get a lot of controversy, so people would go see this tiny picture," Fithian said. "This won't be a good experiment on simultaneous release, because it's gotten so much attention, and so much free publicity."
Even Cuban, who has vociferously defended the digital-release business model, as well as his own role in pushing the idea of collapsing release windows, is looking beyond the "Bubble" release.
"With all the drama the media is trying to assign to (the release strategy), it could be its own movie," he wrote in an e-mail to CNET News.com. "It's just one of many evolutionary steps the media industry takes every year."
But at least for the citizens of Parkersburg, who will see their own homegrown stars on the big screen tonight, "Bubble" will be always have a place in filmmaking history.
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22 comments
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their collective feet.
They charge too much for admission, and too much for
concessions. The more people stay away because of high prices
and advertising on the big screens, the more money they
charge. It's a vicious circle. Why do I want to pay more than $5
for a movie? I shouldn't have to! More and more I'm staying
home and saying to myself I'll just watch it on my big-screen
HDTV when it comes out on Netflix.
Oh well, looks like the end of an era is coming!, as more and more people, create their own personal theatres at home!
In my area we have a 17 screen Cinema Bunker, but many movies we never get because for some reason PJ's King Kong needs to be run on four screens. I really don't have a problem with that, but why not make one of the theaters a smoking friendly environment and rotate films every few days. Now I don't smoke near my consumer electronics, cos I don't have a fan that cleans the air quickly and quietly, instead I just hit pause and go outside for a smoke, but these big theaters, I'm sure could afford to outfit one of their smaller cinemas with tech like that.
Why don't they make one of them "crying baby friendly"...
"People that talk to the screen friendly"... or "people that want to
sit in the handicapped seats friendly"? Because it costs them
money, that's why!
Nobody wants to try and watch a movie while you're trying to
light your cig either.
You don't think parents should bring their baby's to the movies
(neither do I), well I think that if you can't sit for a few hours
without having to light up, maybe YOU should stay at home!
Why don't they make one "crying baby friendly", "people who
want to talk to the screen friendly" or "people who want to sit in
the handicapped seats friendly"...? Because they don't want to
spend the money to please every special interest group out to
see a movie, that's why!
You want the theater owner to remove all of the seats in one
theater, install seats with ash trays AND add an exaust system.
You know why you don't have an exaust that runs quickly and
quietly enough to run while a movie's playing?... because they
ain't cheep.
OK... so they've converted one theater, at great expense... how
do they decide which movie to run in that one theater? Smokers
like more than one movie at a time, don't they?
They should charge smokers more for the use of their special
"smoking theater" also... to offset the cost of repairing all the
burn marks in it's new seats.
You think parents should keep their crying babies at home? So
do I, but I also think that if you can't sit through a 3 hour movie
without having to have a smoke, maybe YOU should stay at
home, pop in a DVD, and munch down on a big bowl of nicotine
gum.
less too lose. He's a millionaire.
If you think about it you, or the other patrons, are causing the problems you gripe about.
Most of these things can be eradicated by using common courtesy. Don't act like a pig when you eat and dont throw you popcorn everywhere. Turn off you cell phones when you enter a theater. Don't talk or cheer unless it is appropriate (say during key plot twists on opening night). Don't smoke in public areas.
The theaters usually have signs posted outside a theater instructing the patrons on these common acts of civility and yet you are all blaming them? Give me a break.
Waaaahhh. Too bad. You should've saw it coming and adapted ahead of the curve. Buh-bye.
Going to the theaters is what makes the film experience so amazing. You will never get the same effect seeing a movie at home, where the phone is ringing all the time, or you could get distracted and stop watching halfway through. Theaters give you a chance to relax, to focus solely on the film that you are watching. When I have children, I don't want them growing up never having seen a movie in theaters before. I cannot express how heartbroken I would be if theaters were done away with altogether. Film is an artform, not just an industry. If theaters go down the drain, than it is like doing away with the only Film Museums we have. It would be like taking all of Da Vinci's paintings, scanning them onto an online museum, then never showing them in public again. IT'S NOT THE SAME EXPERIENCE.
I support this idea. The theater chains are afraid of breaking their old model, just like the studios were when vhs and betamax came out. Make the dvd's available only at the theaters after the movie shows for a couple of months. Then do a mass release to retail. That's one way. There are so many ways to make this work.
Marc Cuban, and company, are on the right track.
IMO, broadband and BIG screen tvs will result in a slow but steady decline in movie going. In fact, movies on disk (dvd, blue ray, hd whatever) are doomed to extinction as well.
And as long as I'm out on this limb, let me add my opinion/hope that direct to consumer marketing for music and movies will knock the last slats from under the MPAA and RIAA.
Essentially people would be paying to virally market the movie they just saw. As long as prices were reasonable, it could pad the take of a hit film AND provide additional marketing for the filmco/theater. ...Not to mention a future ebay market :)
Is this too outside the traditional revenue model? Has anyone already tried this?
In theatre and concerts it's a traveling show playing (in most cases) at one venue at one time. Movies are playing on 1500 screens and blockbuster movies over 3000 screens at a time. Contrast that with a large chain like Best Buy only having 700 stores. Also with intellectual property the owners want some control over it's distribution. Would you leave the responsibility up to to the theater to set-up and display this content? Would the theater buy the products and have to develop their own retail model?
I would love it if movie theaters had this type of promotional/retail model but I think it would take a theater being built from the ground up with this in mind. Some of the larger movies in my area do have tables set up with free posters, etc. but not as in depth as has been discussed here.