There’s a storm brewing between the world’s theater owners and the Walt Disney movie empire!
The Mouse-House recently announced that with its release of Tim Burton’s ALICE IN WONDERLAND starring Johnny Depp, it plans to tighten the window between theatrical distribution of certain films from its present 16 weeks—to just 13 weeks!
Thus the studio will benefit by getting the ALICE into the hands of consumers the first week of June—the start of summer – which traditionally is a great DVD selling time.
God only knows DVD sales are into the crapper.
If the concept flies, similar reasoning could come into play with the early fall releases which the studio then could take to the street for the big Thanksgiving/Christmas holiday DVD buying season.
Should this scenario play out as Disney hopes, look for other major distributors to follow suit with similar reduced theatrical windows.
Further, exhibitors wonder if studios will limit the shrunken windows between theatrical and DVD availability to (as promised) a couple of tentpole titles per year—per studio.
We shall see…
And film companies could spend less DVD marketing dollars by compressing the release time, maximizing DVD revenue which in actuality helps finance the production of today’s high cost movies.
A number of leading exhibitors around the world are allegedly contemplating boycotting Disney’s ALICE IN WONDERLAND.
But can they afford to—especially in competitive markets?
As one regional film buyer told me this week (who requested his name or company affiliation not be mentioned) “…it’s like those greedy airlines, Hollywood is nickel-and-diming us to death.”
It’s certain to be a hot topic at next months international ShoWest movie convention in Las Vegas. We’ll be there and give you the inside skinny.
And so the uneasy relationship between the studios and theaters flourishes. Stay tuned.
Jack Poessiger
jojo
jack: who cares? i go to the movies and pay
$20. Boring column. Would someone please turn
this guy off once and for all.
Maybe hearne can do a review on the star’s
website stories. More boring crap.
Bring on tony and hall. AT least we can have
some controversey with them. Who care when they
put out a dvd or not. The guys on this site
could care less unless it had to do with
women/football/tiger/tiger’s mistresss/kietzman/
wright or pioli and haley. The resto f the articles can be deleted and noone would notice.
jojo
jack…stop plagarizing…you lifted this stuff.
jojo
jack…save your money…noone cares what happens at that convention in vegas..unless
you get some hookers at the craps table..now
that wouold be real news!
jojo
jack..i feel bad that noone reads or comments about your stories. So I’ll just add a few
more. That way people will think there’s something exciting in the piece.
And jack..while in vegas…stop off at olympic
gardens…heard they’ve got some new hot young
unlv girls dancing up one hell of a storm.
But don’t forget dances are $20 each..not the
$1 you normally pay at bazookas.
jojo
hey jack..one more thing. You qouted some
duffass who didn’t want to lose his job saying
“hollywood is nickel and diming us to death”…
well that dude is wrong. HOllywood is $10 and
$20 ing us to death with the pure crap they
put out.
I haven’t seen a great movie since Costner’s
WAterworld and tin cup. Now those were
masterpieces.
When hollywood starts putting out great movies
like “Conan” and “2012” I’ll go back to spending
$10 a movie. Til then…there’s not a damn good
picture in the whole bunch.
jojo
Hell yes jack. I’m preparing to picket the
Palazzo theatre in Olathe. How dare those
capitalist pigs pull their movies from
the theatres after just 13 weeks.
Hell…thats 3 less weeks to sell that old
grimy popcorn for $20 a barrel or their
old royals stadium hot dogs for $15 or their
boxes of jujubees for $4. How dare those
movie companies try to rip off the public
or their theatre comapnies. Who do they
think they are?
jojo
and jack..i heard amc theatres have added
“snack police”. Like the sky marshalls, they
comb theatres for terrorists trying to sneak
in chocolate covered peanuts, raisenettes,
and boxes of 3 month old popcorn.
Its a major security issue and an amc official
…who requested his name or company affiliation
not be revealed…said ” We’re closing in
on them. We’re making them take off their shoes
for fear of having free milk duds and cherry
licorice penetrate our theatres. This is all out
war…and now that Mr. Bulky has reduced their
per pound prices we’re bringing in all our
forces and manpower to protect our seats from
the gum chewers who stick their old worn out
gum on our chairs underside…we really mean
business this time”
jon
jojo you should be posting on gatewaycityradio.com. Your bull-
shit goes over great on that
site.
Matter of fact aren’t you the
homoxsexual lover of radioman?
Seriously guy you need to get
a life or at least go in for
treatments.
Come to think of it a brushup
in geography wouldn’t hurt either.
You mentioned the Palazzo in
Olathe. It’s in Overland Park.
Too bad they won’t let you enter
OP because they’ve got a great
public mental health facility.
Now get back in the basement and
try to masturbate between posts.
jojo
jon…good to see you in good spirits. What
is gateway city radi? Do they need some good
comments there? I’ll check it out.
But come on jon..all my posts in this segment
were toungue in cheek…trying to be funny..
nad some people have a sense of humor….
don’t take it personally…please.
jackp
hey jojo—good hearing from you again. Glad you’re having fun.