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Author
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Topic: Soderbergh to debut movies in theatres, DVD and satellite simultaneously
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Mike Blakesley
Film God
Posts: 12767
From: Forsyth, Montana
Registered: Jun 99
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posted 05-02-2005 01:04 PM
2929 Signs Soderbergh for Six-Pack
Fri Apr 29, 2:23 AM ET
In a move that provides significant momentum to Mark Cuban and Todd Wagner's efforts to collapse traditional film-distribution windows, their 2929 Entertainment company has signed a six-picture directing deal with maverick director Steven Soderbergh.
Announced Thursday, the deal through 2929's HDNet production company will see Soderbergh's films released simultaneously in theaters, on TV and in home video, on the theory that collapsing the traditionally staggered windows gives consumers a choice regarding how and when they want to see a film.
Soderbergh will have creative control over all the films' content, with each one produced in 1080i high-definition format. The first project, "Bubble," centering on a murder mystery in a small town in Ohio, is in production on a three-week schedule with Soderbergh writing and directing. The casting director trawled area malls and beauty shops to find local residents to audition for the nonprofessional cast.
HDNet Films is financing all the projects, with "Bubble's" budget between $2 million and $3 million. Wagner said this figure might increase for the yet-to-be-announced projects, depending on what Soderbergh pitches.
"I'm excited to work with Todd and Mark and appreciate the freedom to create independent films under this new distribution model," Soderbergh said in a statement. "All of us see consumer choice driving the future of the movie industry, and this is a giant leap in that direction." Soderbergh has long been a fan of digital filmmaking. His digital projects include Miramax's "Full Frontal" and the HBO series "K Street" and "Unscripted."
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The day-and-date strategy will be executed via 2929's Magnolia Pictures label, with theatrical distribution initially taking place at the company's Landmark Theatre chain and TV distribution through the company's high-definition cable channel, HDNet Movies. It's unclear whether the theatrical distribution will expand beyond 2929's properties, as the strategy of collapsing windows is seen as a threat by many in the industry.
But with Soderbergh's recent producing projects "Criminal" and "The Jacket" both performing dismally at the boxoffice via Warner Independent Pictures, 2929's strategy might provide an attractive alternative for Soderbergh's smaller projects. (2929 also produced "Goodnight, and Good Luck," the story of broadcast journalist Edward R. Murrow, directed by George Clooney, Soderbergh's production partner in his company Section 8.)
"I think the distribution strategy was part of why (Soderbergh) did it," Wagner said. "Some of the things he did before didn't get the theatrical attention he would have liked. With us, we can make sure they get theatrical distribution in addition to television and home video. We can get it out there and test this model."
Another goal of this strategy, which Wagner hopes will lead to quarterly theatrical releases, is to add subscribers to his burgeoning HDNet network. "We want the HDNet subscribers to be happy," Wagner said. "We need to make it worthwhile for them to be on the system. With a director of this caliber they will know that this is something we are serious about."
Wagner also hopes that Soderbergh is not the only director to sign on. "This is just the beginning. This deal doesn't prevent other directors or actors from trying to do something different. But we're off to a good start with Steven leading the charge."
http://entertainment.tv.yahoo.com/entnews/va/20050429/111476661900.html
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Kyle McEachern
Expert Film Handler
Posts: 165
From: San Francisco, CA
Registered: Feb 2004
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posted 05-02-2005 04:43 PM
$28,000, for the record there, on Clerks. However, as people tend to say, "Clerks isn't a real movie". Not exactly the truth of course, but it's a single handheld camera, a group of friends, after hours at the place they worked. Not quite the Steven Soderbergh approach to filmmaking.
For a bit more background, Mallrats cost $3 million, Chasing Amy $250,000 (The Weinsteins wanted a different cast if they were going to give him the $6 million he asked for, so to keep the cast he wanted, they gave him $250k), Dogma $10 million, and Jay & Silent Bob was $20 million.
(Numbers off the top of my head, I think they're accurate though...I'll have to go watch my An Evening With Kevin Smith DVD again soon)
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Ian Price
Phenomenal Film Handler
Posts: 1714
From: Denver, CO
Registered: Jun 99
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posted 05-02-2005 05:31 PM
quote: Mike Blakesley
Soderbergh's films released simultaneously in theaters, on TV and in home video
This is the issue. I read about this in the paper and rushed to Film-Tech to start or read the hugh and cry, the uproar, the indignation. But instead, I find a discussion about the cost of independent film.
If is available on your television, no-one (with the possible exception of myself, who has no TV) will pay to see it in a movie theatre. I know that cinemas will evolve with the time and adapt to changing market conditions or die. But to simultaneously release a film on all formats undercuts the cinema in a way that is extremely distasteful to me. Short release windows have already eliminated the sub run market. Japanese Anime films have such a short release window that secondary markets cannot secure prints before the video release. Secondary markets for other Art films are also suffering with video release windows down around the 4-month mark.
If this trend continues, as I think it will, all that will be left of the cinema is First Run megaplex where the studios release all of their films digitally, program the show times so the public can see the film every 20-minutes for a week before the video release and museums where film is presented reverently like queuing up to see a Van Gaugh exhibit.
The good news is that there will always be a small select market for film, just like you can download the pop song, but if you are an enthusiast you can go see the artist in concert. Maybe it will bring back the roadshow. The other good news is that Soderbergh has never sold that many tickets.
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Brian Michael Weidemann
Expert cat molester
Posts: 944
From: Costa Mesa, CA United States
Registered: Feb 2004
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posted 05-04-2005 01:32 AM
quote: Bobby Henderson
Why do I need to pay $7 to $12 for an admission ticket (along with a few bucks more at the concession stand) when I can just watch it on cable for much less?
And this is just why the "results" from this experiment are going to be skewed. If a family goes out to the movies and says "Hey, what do we want to see?", they will not pick something they can go home and TiVo. Consumer choice driving the movie industry in this way will eliminate the industry. By removing any motivation to see a theatrical release, where most of the grosses are made (isn't it that opening weekend that pretty much covers whether or not a film is "successful" after all?), by giving it away for free, with commercials, on television, the only money to be made by film companies is from advertising companies.
Big budget movies may become fewer and fewer. Although, this might not be such a bad thing.
However, the theatre business will be losing its consumers of popcorn. ![[Eek!]](eek.gif)
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Darryl Spicer
Film God
Posts: 3250
From: Lexington, KY, USA
Registered: Dec 2000
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posted 06-22-2005 07:51 PM
Reuters/hollywood reporter
LOS ANGELES (Hollywood Reporter) - If billionaire Mark Cuban has his way, theatrical distribution may never be the same.
2929 Entertainment, the company the Dallas Mavericks owner founded with partner Todd Wagner, is determined to collapse the traditional distribution windows by simultaneously releasing films across theatrical, home video and cable. But even though the experiment has barely begun, it already is running into steely opposition from theater owners across the country.
While 2929 announced late last month that it plans to produce and then release six Steven Soderbergh films on the three platforms simultaneously, exhibitors already are saying they will refuse to play the director's new fare.
As an owner of two of those three distribution outlets -- it controls Landmark Theatres and the high-definition cable channel HDNet Movies -- 2929 has the ability to fulfill its agenda on a limited basis. But if the company aspires to distribute Soderbergh's product beyond Landmark's 209 screens, it faces a formidable roadblock in that many commercial theaters have refused to play product that is released in other formats at the same time as it is offered to theaters.
"Our policy will continue to be that we don't exhibit films that are already in the market on DVD or pay-per-view," said Mike Campbell, president and CEO of Regal Entertainment Group, the largest U.S. theater chain. "We believe the plan is ill-conceived and won't receive much support from the traditional exhibition or distribution community."
Said Tony Karasotes, chairman and CEO of Chicago-based Karasotes Showplace Theatres: "I just think it's a wrong-headed approach. The way to properly distribute film is to use the traditional sequential pattern set up by the studios. (2929's plan) is ass-backwards, and I don't want to encourage that kind of approach because I own motion picture theaters."
AMC Theatres, Loews Cineplex, Cinemark USA, Pacific Theatres, National Amusements and Wisconsin-based Marcus Theatres, among others, all have declined to play films with simultaneous release in the home market.
"We just have to show them results," Cuban said. "By pricing the DVDs at a premium for day-and-date delivery, I think we help create a better value for in-theater viewing. By leveraging day-and-date, we can spend more on P&A (prints and advertising), which should also help."
Soderbergh's first announced project is "Bubble," a murder mystery set in a small Ohio town and cast with nonactors. If the six films Soderbergh creates for 2929 all resemble that model, they might well receive little distribution beyond Landmark's art houses. At least on paper, "Bubble" sounds like an experiment in the vein of the director's R-rated 2002 release "Full Frontal." Even though that film had the benefit of such stars as Julia Roberts, David Duchovny and Blair Underwood, it grossed just $2.5 million after bowing on 209 screens.
"It's really a break for all of us that these films are being released by 2929 and not a Warner Bros., which has to make Soderbergh happy because they have the next 'Ocean's Eleven,"' said one exhibitor at a leading chain who asked not to be named.
Theater owners, of course, have a vested interest in the current distribution model; in many cases they have signed 20-year leases, taken in cash infusions from enthusiastic investors and turned their popcorn-selling, seat-filling operations into profitable businesses.
But even though 2929's proposal threatens to upend a system that guarantees theaters to be the exclusive venue for new film titles, the vision of the future also has a certain logic of its own.
The company first tried its hand at the model, albeit in a more limited fashion, last month with the release of the Magnolia Film documentary "Enron: The Smartest Guys in the Room." Produced by HDNet, 2929's low-budget film production arm, and distributed by Magnolia Pictures, the Alex Gibney-driected film opened in Landmark Theatres and had an exclusive day-and-date release on the HDNet channel on DirecTV. "Enron" has earned $2 million theatrically since its April 22 bow, a respectable gross for a limited-release documentary.
Cuban said HDNet subscriber additions won't be available until next month, but the executive said the response to "Enron" has been great. "From subs, from people who told us they just subscribed, and the continued box office success of the movie will only continue to benefit us," he said in an e-mail.
And while the film originally opened in three Landmark Theatres, it has since expanded to other circuits, including Los Angeles-based Laemmle Theatres.
"We felt that HDNet didn't have a significant market penetration," Laemmle Theatres president Greg Laemmle said. "It wasn't like going day-and-date with cable or DVD, and therefore we felt the box office wouldn't be negatively impacted."
While Laemmle was willing to experiment with a film simultaneously bowing with a day-and-date premiere on HDNet, he won't go down the path of exhibiting titles that also are available on home video.
"It's a whole different ball of wax," Laemmle said. "A lot of people have DVD players, and a lot of people who see art films have DVD players. I have no interest in encouraging that sort of thing. That said, if someone shows it can work, I don't own that decision, and we'll choose to re-evaluate as the situation demands."
Other theater chains might be forced to re-evalute the situation as well. At the Milken Institute's Global Conference in Beverly Hills last month, studio heads admitted that the cost of piracy is forcing them to rethink the time between a theatrical release and its home video availability. Barry Meyer, chairman and CEO of Warner Bros., predicted that in the future "your premiere will be in Wal-Mart."
While many studios are paying lip service to the exhibitors, agreeing with them on the dangers of collapsing traditional windows, some of them actually are looking forward to 2929's test of its strategy.
"It's going to be an interesting test," said one distributor who declined to be named. "On the issue of piracy, it would certainly help eliminate some of the concern about the amount of money we spend trying to protect against piracy. Marketing costs are another thing no one has been able to control. If we go video, theatrical and pay-per-view all at once with a well-known title, you could bring in $100 million in one night, similar to a (pay-per-view) fight."
One argument for 2929's approach is that it will reduce overall marketing costs, since all markets could be reached at once. However that scenario plays out, one marketing exec said that the challenge to bring consumers to the theater only will grow.
"The challenge will be to get these people to pony up the money to go to the theater when it's available everywhere else," said one studio marketing president who declined to be named. "We always hear from focus groups whether (they deem a movie) a rental or something they want to see in the theater. For most people it's a real financial decision, and there has to be a reason they need to see it in that environment. Releasing simultaneously on different platforms takes away a lot of that reason."
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