Against Day and Date Distribution
by Jarrett Tan
While Day and Date Distribution has many supporters in it’s corners, it has also got it’s fair share of detractors.
The Theatres (Info taken from here)
Theaters are the main group feeling threatened and major theater owners just really hate the idea. Many say it ultimately will cost them customers, and they refuse to support it.
AMC Theatres, which has 3,500 screens, believes "a film released on DVD the same day and date wouldn't play well in a theatrical environment, just as a made-for-TV movie wouldn't play well, either," says spokeswoman Melanie Bell.
Kendrick Macdowell, general counsel for the National Association of Theatre Owners, says he is aware of only one member company that supports omni-debuts: the Landmark chain, which is owned by 2929 Entertainment's Wagner and Cuban. "The practice will ultimately be bad for studios and theaters alike," Macdowell says.
“Some people see a movie multiple times in theaters, then buy it on DVD and watch it later on cable or broadcast TV, and Macdowell believes that The Bubble model could dampen that enthusiasm. "They're making a big mistake in assuming a simultaneous release should be the model for the entire industry," Macdowell says.
"We don't like it," says Terrell Falk, spokeswoman for Cinemark USA Inc., which has 3,357 screens. "If it's out on DVD, we wouldn't show it in any of our first-run theaters."
Burst Bubble (from Time Magazine, March 20 2006)
"Bubble", one of the first movies released Day and Date, and which received a lot of publicity, tanked on all formats.
Not many people even went to see it. Bubble did just $70,664 at the box office during its opening weekend, with an anemic $2,208 per-screen average. In comparison, Soderbergh's previous experimental film, Full Frontal, opened with a $740,000 take.
As M. Night Shyamalan puts it, "Bubble had $10 million worth of free publicity. Bubble had the advantage over any independent movie of its same ilk. It had so many advantages, and still it didn't perform. If Bubble did well, wouldn't that have been evidence that day-and-date works? Well, they tried it, and they failed."
Todd Wagner, who runs Bubble's production company 2929 Entertainment with Mark Cuban, acknowledges that simultaneous release remains appropriate for only a few movies. "Going in, we knew (Bubble was) a very atypical film for the marketplace," Wagner said.
Is it Even Viable Yet?
Whether all major studios will adopt day and date as the standard distribution model is still debatable, but according to Wired.com, it seems unlikely:
"No independent film companies can replicate 2929's strategy. The company operates like a scale version of an old-fashioned movie studio, controlling the means of production and distribution. In addition to its national theater chain Landmark Theaters, 2929 owns HDNet Films, the production company that oversaw Bubble; Magnolia Pictures, the company that distributed it; HDNet, the cable company that broadcast it; and Magnolia Home Entertainment, which released it on DVD. Because 2929 runs its own theaters, it can mess with release patterns in ways no one else can. That makes Bubble's multi-platform release more of an anomaly than a sign of things to come.
Despite the poor box-office returns, Wagner predicts Bubble, which cost $1.6 million to make, will become profitable. He estimated foreign and DVD sales of $5 million. And he described the HDNet screenings as "all gravy." Wagner plans to continue experimenting with ways to release 2929's movies. The company has five more low-budget Soderbergh films in the pipeline. "We have always said this is just the first inning," said Wagner. "Overall we rate (Bubble) a big success and look forward to releasing other movies in this manner."
But Gary Meyer, who runs a consulting business for theater owners and operates San Francisco's Balboa Theater, says as long as the phrases "direct to video" and "made for cable" remain slurs, the so-called day-and-date release strategy remains an iffy proposition. "
While A-List directors like George Lucas and Steve Soderbergh remain firm supporters of Day and Date, and many agree it logically should be the way of the future, it might not be a likely industry standard within the next 2 or 3 years, not to mention the chances of a distribution company in Australia experimenting with something similar.