11.26.08: "What I'm Thankful For" or "Wake Up, Hollywood!"

PART I: THE MARCH OF TECHNOLOGY

A decade ago the best most people could hope for in a "home theater" was a several hundred-pound monstrosity of a 50" 480i CRT television attached to an amplifier and a pair of stereo speakers. At the time, most of us couldn't afford any better. As great as that was for watching football, certainly nobody could seriously compare such a setup to the theatrical moviegoing experience.

Format-wise your options were DVD, VHS, or live TV – Remember live TV? Blockbuster was king, a lot of people still believed that letterboxed movies were robbing them of part of the picture, etc.

Contrast that with the giant, thin-screen, 16:9 high-definition, 5.1/7.1 channel surround sound setup that practically everyone you know has these days. The picture is brilliant, the audio immersive, the format options nigh limitless due to the advent of Netflix, on-demand viewing, DVRs, Blu-ray discs, a host of set-top boxes (Apple TV, Xbox 360, Roku)... it's not the theater, but it's close enough to prevent a lot of us from having to deal with the many disappointments of modern moviegoing – poor projection standards, broken seats, rude patrons with their texting and cellphones and chatter and seat-kicking, etc.

PART II: INFORMATION OVERLOAD

A quick review of the 2008 box office figures to-date shows that the top 23 movies are either spectacles or cultural phenomena (or both) – The Dark Knight, Quantum of Solace, Sex and The City, etc., i.e. the types of films for which it is worth putting up with the aforementioned issues in order to enjoy a communal moviegoing experience and relatively large theatrical screens. The unique joys of laughing, crying, or shrieking with strangers are quite difficult to recreate at home. (This is also why Hollywood is suddenly gung-ho over 3D and IMAX.) The #24 film, Pineapple Express, should therefore be considered a massive success not only for earning more than triple its production budget in domestic box office, but also for convincing moviegoers that a relatively low-key comedy was a must-see theatrical experience. (Conversely, X-Files: I Want To Believe, with about $21 milion in box office, is the worst-performing "spectacle" film and therefore, by this measure, the biggest flop. In terms of performance vs. cost, The Love Guru is probably the biggest loser.)

Depending on your perspective – "independent" is a vague term – either vamp-phenom Twilight (#32 and rising), the Coen Brothers' star-laden Burn After Reading (#40) or The Secret Life of Bees (#66) is the top-grossing independent film of the year so far.

Yes, all of this box office talk is going somewhere.  Bear with me.

Here is Rotten Tomatoes' list of the best-reviewed movies of 2008.  You have to get all the way down to #16 to find any of the big box office films (The Dark Knight). Heck, most people probably haven't heard of anything in the top 10.  Taxi To The Dark Side, anyone?  The Order of Myths? Maybe you'll find these at the bottom of a Blockbuster new release wall, a single-disc wonder easily missed when contrasted with 100 Kung Fu Panda boxes.  But probably not.

So why are the "best" movies going unwatched?  Many of them are documentaries getting token theatrical releases in order to qualify for Oscar eligibility, limiting access to those fortunate enough to live in NY or LA.  And often their subject matter may be deemed too controversial or niche to have mass appeal. Regardless, there is clearly a disconnect between critical and box office success. (Not a groundbreaking statement, I know.) 

But beyond the critics' darlings there are films of dubious quality – I'm looking at you, Repo! The Genetic Opera – whose potential audience is being vastly underserved by the current theater THEN home video THEN pay-per-view release system.

But there is something that can be done about it.  Which brings us to –

PART III: THE FUTURE

In 2006, Mark Cuban, the billionaire owner of the Dallas Mavericks, 2929 Entertainment, Landmark Theaters and more, teamed up with indie Hall-of-Famer Steven Soderbergh to release the low-budget film Bubble in theaters and on Cuban's HDNet on the exact same day.  The DVD release followed a few days later. It was a bold, not entirely successful experiment, but it was definitely forward-thinking.

At the time the number of installed HDTVs was much lower than it is today – sales increased by 60% in the 4th quarter of 2007 alone.  Broadband internet access is also significantly higher, and many of the on-demand services now available didn't even exist two years ago.

Put it all together, and assuming that a film is never going to get a wide release then there's no reason  we shouldn't be able to watch "new releases" in the comfort of our own home on the day of – or close to – the theatrical release.  I would have GLADLY paid $20 to watch Repo! on my home theater setup rather than having to endure New York's notoriously awful Angelika theater.  (They book interesting films, but the actual screening rooms suck.) I would GLADLY pay $20 to watch Slumdog Millionaire right now in Florida.  That movie will not be improved by watching it with a handful of senior citizens in a garbage cinema whose manager turns off the surround sound to save money. Rent it to me for 24 hours, DRM the thing to death, I don't care.  But the technology exists, why not exploit it?

Hollywood – I want to give you money.  And there are others out there like me.  I can rent these small release films in a few months, since that's what you apparently want me to do, but then you only get whatever percentage of $5.  I'm certainly not going to buy them, as a DVD library has little value in an HDTV age, Blu-ray is a passing phase, and on-demand services are the future.

WRAPPING IT UP

As we reach the end of 2008, I'm thankful for the many advances in technology that have allowed us greater access to films old and new than at any other time in history.  And I'm thankful for my lovely little home theater setup – and it is little, there's no dedicated room or $50,000 speakers or whatnot – that allows me to watch most movies in a manner that is technically equal (or superior) to many actual movie theaters.

But aside from waiting for home video projectors to reach a sweet spot of performance/value (and therefore transforming an entire wall into a screen), I wait for Hollywood to wake up and smell the opportunity that our technology-obsessed, impulse-buy culture presents. Sales of physical media are declining; here's a chance to compensate. The biggest obstacle is marketing, but hey – I'm sure that can be worked out.

That's enough out of me.  HAPPY THANKSGIVING, everyone!

Comments

[Noodles]

I couldn't agree more!

[jenni]

I loathe the Angelika. Being herded into lines to go in, feeling the subway rumble under your bum... feh. Give me the Landmark theaters any day!!

[J.Bradley]

Personally, the day that all or most movies are exclusively on physical media or for download will be the day I'll only watch the movies in my own collection that are a momento of the days when movies were a collective expeience and an "event", either of cultural relevance or an attempt to be so. Sure it's cool now to be able to keep up with those movies that only play in half a dozen major cities. DVD or download helps one - not known to be a part of "the critic-atti" to be in that sector of cineasts. The "tradition" of cinema is populist and once it loses that aspect, it loses it's power as a collective "storyteller". This same thing has happened to popular music. What once was an aspect of popular culture that provided a sense of commonality has been reduced to something akin to a screensaver or a personalized faceplate for a cellphone. "What's on your playlist?" is just a trite way to make conversation, like asking about the weather. Before this, everyone KNEW the big songs of the day and who sang them, and what they were about. Movies are put out there and as a society, a generation, a group of fans, we accept them or reject them. Sometimes even after the larger audience rejects them, a "cult" of fans will support it and it makes it's way back to a larger appreciation that way - but that's how it works. The movies have no power exclusively as some "cocooned" experience. Maybe when the world is uniformly "wired", but our language and stories and experiences will be of a much different world then.

[Premiere]

J. Bradley - I hear ya. But some films – for the varied reasons listed in my post – are not destined to be communal experiences for most of the country. They are destined to be either crappy, under-attended theatrical experiences or home video rentals. And it's the rare film that achieves cult status. It is these films that should be made available in alternative ways earlier in the distribution cycle than is now common. As for a "cocooned" experience... The Sopranos, Lost, Gossip Girl, what-have-you are all shared experiences, even though their respective fans watch them alone or in small groups. If something is meant to be in the zeitgeist, then it will happen regardless of the delivery format.

[All About Pizza Hut Coupons]

What i like about modern technology is that they can bring old movies to life, turning it into color and making the necessary reparations to remove the bad transitions frame by frame.

[bob]

I agree with both of you -- there is nothing like seeing a movie in the theater, but in some cities it's just not possible. Why not allow the folks whose local theaters don't pick up films like Slumdog to see it at the same time and be a *part* of the discussion while it's happening? It's a tough argument to sell to theater owners or studios that they should take a chance on a small movie in a more suburban area in this economy.

The rollout plan for Che is very interesting, and I'm eager to see if it works. I am personally not sold on the Soderbergh/2929 Entertainment-style same day model, but maybe with a situation like Che it could be an appealing alternative.

Say what you will about Twilight, but Summit Entertainment is a small independent distributor who made a very savvy choice to not only pick up the film (whoever passed on it is kicking themselves) but to tap into its fan base and create such a huge freaking screaming mass of female fans lining up to see it at midnight. With their moms. Wearing their shirts from Hot Topic. Listening to the soundtrack.