Hollywood is in a frenzy trying to come up with public relations patter by which to justify the coming shift in release windows. A lot of them are embracing the argument that the poor smaller budget pictures are not getting a proper release due to the fact of the preponderance of comic movies, well folks whose fault is that.
The subset of Time Warner, know as Warner Bros. is pushing forward with plans to put new movies into consumers’ homes earlier. The studio is putting out a story that is worthy of the Potemkin Village ploy used by bureaucrats working under Russia’s Empress Catherine the Great. A Potemkin Village is a pretentiously showy or imposing façade intended to mask or divert attention from an embarrassing or shabby fact or condition. The story they are putting out is that a shortened theatrical window might benefit the adult dramas that are getting pushed out of the marketplace by comic-book movies and other tentpoles.
In the words of Warner’s Chairman and CEO,Kevin Tsujiharain “The middle of the market in the theatrical business has gotten extremely tough,Allowing such films into the home earlier would “change the economics,”. A rumored 14 day window while might initially be applied to adult dramas, if it is applied successfully to the “adult drama” one can easily see a studio widening it’s use. A movie studio is rarely a font of altruism.
It is time that theatres start preparing for alternative content strategies.
The Warner’s Studio head is “making a lot of progress” on the issue, he said. “We’re aggressively working with exhibitors to talk about models that will grow the market instead of cannibalizing the market.” Warner Bros. isn’t the only entity pushing for the change.
Our dear friends Apple is lobbying and lobbying hard to have its ITunes be the platform for premium rentals or the new release films. Last year Napster co-founder Sean Parker introduced the concept Screening Room, a startup who wanted to have day-and-date home viewing of new movies via a $150 set-top box at a cost of $50 per title. Now there are 8 services who are working with the studio a similar offering. Of course the studios are touting these new offerings as piracy killers.
Fox and Universal have confirmed they’re also considering offering earlier home-video rentals at higher price points. The always generous Warner Bros.’ make the surprising claim to interest in a shorter theatrical window is driven by “consumers and the economics of the film business,, Warner’s claims “It’s about giving consumers what they want,” he said. “If we don’t give it to them, they’re going to go to pirated versions.” I frankly do not believe this, I think the consumer will not tolerate a $50 price point, nor do we think the studios was another middle man. What they want to do is have a direct pipeline to the consumer’s wallets
Like mentioned above, Apple is pushing and pushing hard to have the studios to shorten all release windows. The word on the street is that 21st Century Fox, Warner Bros. and Universal Pictures are giving this serious consideration . The executives are seriously advocating for rentals as early as two weeks after a film’s theatrical release at rates of $25 to $50, .Apple is insisting that those rentals to be on iTunes in order to bolster movie revenues on a platform built on music sales.
But this is not just an American phenomena, Indian Movie Friend, a UK-based entertainment start-up, has launched an innovative secure digital platform that allows Indians living oversea immediate access new Indian films on the same day of the Indian release. The huge Indian community living outside of India will now have access to movies in their language of choice whether it be Hindi, Marathi, Tamil, Malayalam, Telugu, Punjabi, Urdu, Kannada and Bengali.
Of course in the words for the promo of the new services sounds hauntingly familiar to the words of Warner Brothers. “The benefits it offers to producers are many, presenting an opportunity for content-led medium budget cinema to showcase their ready films without reliance on theatre chains and release windows, which are reserved for blockbuster films. Moreover, it will serve as a deterrent to the bane of the film industry – piracy!”…….sounds familiar.
Here is what is going to happen, theatres will have a 14 day window, then Apple will begin lead test market on carrying the studio titles. Apple TV will become embedded in newly sold televisions and the price point will ending up being $14.99 not 425 or $50.
Hollywood, is about to shrink in the same way music and books have done. The culprit is emerging technology which is being develop without a firm understanding what it will do with existing markets. Take for examples the newspaper ad business,newspaper advertising revenues fell from $67 billion in 2000 to $19.9 billion in 2014. Box office is going to see a similar shrinkage. It is a sad fact that between 2007 and 2011, profits for the larger movie studios , Twentieth Century Fox, Warner Bros., Paramount Pictures, Universal Pictures, and Disney fell by a stunning 40 percent. Studios now account for less than 10 percent of their parent companies’ profits. Some analysts feel that share will fall to to a measly 5 percent. The only exceptions is Disney thanks largely due to Star Wars.
I would look for this to be happening as early as September. Folks it’s time to change the model and change it fast. You might find that the last man standing will be the drive-in and the community theatre.
