Twenty-three prominent directors and producers signed an open letter calling on the four studios involved in the early “premium video on demand” offering from DirecTV. The Hollywood Reporter covers it. One of the letter’s signers, former Fox studio chief Bill Mechanic, speaks at length with David Poland of Movie City News about the value of… Read more »
Posts Categorized: Reel Blog
James Cameron opposes early premium VOD
Director James Cameron tells the N.Y. Times why he opposes early premium video on demand: “I do feel it’s not wise to erode your core business,” said Mr. Cameron. The problem, he said, is not that on-demand offerings will overlap with the theatrical run, since most films are out of most theaters within a month…. Read more »
Establishing a price point without customers
The Wrap details some of the options theater owners have in response to shortening the theatrical release window for “premium” video on demand. What stands out for me, amidst the arguments pro and con and the throat-clearing before the main event, is the remarkable logic behind this: Curiously, the distribution executive TheWrap spoke to Tuesday… Read more »
"Anonymous" wonders if studios are trying to kill the movie theater business
Anonymous writes in The Wrap: In a stunning suspension of disbelief, many studio executives argue that an enhanced early at-home alternative will encourage MORE people to go to the movie theater — do people this naive really exist? It sounds exactly like the last ten years of internet gurus and solons calmly insisting that free… Read more »
Bill Mechanic calls early VOD short-sghted and destructive
The veteran distribution exec tells it like it is.