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Hollywood pushing dates of movies on DVD shorter
posted by
moviebuff82
on
February 19, 2010 at 7:45 am
According to the Wall Street Journal(sub. rqr’d), the time frame between a movie’s release in theaters and on DVD is getting shorter. A good example is “GI Joe: Rise of Cobra” on DVD, which was releasd three months after the movie was in theaters. Disney is doing the same with its “Alice In Wonderland” 3-D film, which is coming out in June, three months after the movie’s debut in theaters.
The coming release of Walt Disney Co.’s “Alice in Wonderland” might serve as a looking glass into the movie industry’s future.
Instead of releasing the DVD 16 and a half weeks after the movie opens in theaters, Disney plans to put it out after just 12 and a half weeks, even if it is still playing at the multiplex.
Comments (13)
Alice In Wonderland is coming out in March…not June!
OOOPS…read the statement wrong. The DVD is coming out in June. Sorry….carry on.
Many theatre circuit owners in Europe will not be booking Disney’s ‘Alice’ 3-D or 2-D because of the new Disney DVD window as a protest. Will this spread to the USA? With all the new 3-D movies coming out soon most multiplex cinemas only have one 3-D screen per complex, you may have to settle for flat 2-D after a few weeks of third dimension play so they can make room for the next 3-D movie.
A few years back, France tried to protest shorter windows by having theatres not run Night At The Museum. This didn’t work mainly because Night At The Museum was a big moneymaker and the theatres wanted the additional coin.
This move is nothing but total greed and stupidity by idiots.
Perhaps cinemas should start to boycott the screening of films until this madness comes to a halt. I think the studios and distributors will finally come to their senses. YES???
Sorry, Simon. The answer is a resounding NO!!! The only ones hurt will be the theatres who miss out on hit films. There are so few of them, compared to the losers that are released, who can afford to pass up something as important as “Alice in Wonderland.”
Besides, corporoids don’t care about anything. They’re not programmed that way.
I’m not sure if the public thinks about, or cares about, release windows. The ones that like going to the movies will more than likely continue to do so, and the ones that prefer to watch a feature film on DVD, video on demand, pay TV or even wait for a freebie telecast will do likewise.
My only concern is that movies are no longer considered anything special. I worked in the exhibition and distribution side of the movie industry for years and can remember when I would give someone a guest pass to a film it was truly appreciated. It’s no longer a big deal. If they decide not to use the pass in a few months they can catch it on their big screen at home. Or worse yet, on their choice of hand-held, i-something device.
Part of this is the fault of the exhibition industry giving us boring auditoriums to sit in, poor presentations, no showmanship whatsoever and annoying commercials as a lead-in to the feature attraction. Unfortunately, I don’t think this will change. It’s simple greed and a lack of consideration for the audiences and the people that make the movies.
But what I do not understand about this particular case, is why Disney wants to shorten the release window on this particular film; this is a high profile film directed by a director whose films usually get a great deal of attention. If the expansion of 3D is supposed to be the thing that increases theater attendance, then why pull this one so soon when the theaters can charge more for people to see it? Shortening he release window on crap like “Valentine’s Day” or the next Will Ferrell turkey I could understand.
Or. perhaps, are the theaters homing in on this film because they know it is high profile so as to keep the release open longer on other films?
I’m young enough to remember to remember when movies were special enough to have major theatrical re-releases. I remember how excited I would get everytime the original STAR WARS was re-released. Here’s some other re-release poster captions I remember…
“If you forgot what terror was like, it’s back.” (JAWS, re-released 1979)
“One good bit deserves another.” (JAWS 2, re-released 1980)
“It is now rated PG.” (SATURDAY NIGHT FEVER, re-released 1979)
“Guess who’s back!” (ANIMAL HOUSE, re-released 1979)
“The greates musical of all time, one more time!” (GREASE, re-released 1980)
“The reutrn of the great adventure.” (RAIDERS OF THE LOST ARK, re-released 1982)
“Return…to a galaxy far, far away.” (RETURN OF THE JEDI, re-released 1985)
“The story that touched the world.” (E.T., re-released 1985)
2A. A big standing ovation to the ownership of Odeon Cinemas in the UK for not taking Disney’s bait and boycotting the film outright. The 411 is AMC is considering a similar stance.
2B. The new management at Disney is slowly but surely trying to destroy our way of life. They want to (first) diminish the impact of and (finally) take movie theatres out of business and switch film releases straight to the home entertainment market. All this crap about shortening film windows is Disney’s first step of trying to redo motion picture distribution. Thankfully (hate it or love it) the $2.5 billion and counting of Avatar’s box office is proving that our way of life is not ready to give up the ship!
Disney is shortening the window on Alice in Wonderland because they want to debut its new video-on-demand service with it. That’s understandable but why get it on VOD when a monthly Netflix subscription is cheaper?
Rescinding my standing O for Odeon. They caved in to Disney’s demands and are showing the flick.
Signing in to CT of Thursday Feb 25th only confirms what I stated above on Feb 21st!
Need I say more ?… tadaaaaaaah!