USA: Film director Steven Soderbergh's same-day film, DVD and cable release of latest film "Bubble" whips up potentially explosive Hollywood debate

Record ID: 751823

  • Title: USA: Film director Steven Soderbergh's same-day film, DVD and cable release of latest film "Bubble" whips up potentially explosive Hollywood debate
  • Date: 19th January 2006
  • Summary: LOS ANGELES, UNITED STATES (RECENT) (REUTERS) ACTOR GEORGE CLOONEY SPEAKING TO PRESS ON THE RED CARPET (NOT HEARD) PHOTOGRAPHERS COVERING THE RED CARPET (SOUNDBITE) (English) GEORGE CLOONEY, ACTOR, SAYING: "I think any way you can get films out there is a good idea. I don't think its, Steven isn't designing it to do for all films to work that way, but I think there's a
  • Embargoed: 3rd February 2006 12:00
  • Keywords:
  • Location: Usa
  • Country: USA
  • Topics: Entertainment,Industry
  • Reuters ID: LVA6Y22F2NSSXP7294J7PRK8ADBT
  • Story Text: Oscar award winning director Steven Soderbergh's new film "Bubble" is emerging as the centre of an intense, often heated debate in Hollywood, not so much because of its content as its distribution method.
    "Bubble" is one of the first Hollywood films to be released simultaneously in theatres, on air on HDNet Movies and to be made available for purchase on DVD, barely a few days after the theatrical debut. This distribution model is termed "day-and-date release" in Hollywood jargon.
    Filmed in a stripped-down style featuring non-professional actors cast from the Ohio-West Virginia area in which the story is set, "Bubble" is the first in a series of six low-budget HD (High-Definition) films to be directed by Soderbergh for 2929 Entertainment, a media company owned by entrepreneurs Todd Wagner and Mark Cuban.
    "Bubble's" plot centres on an unlikely love triangle at a doll factory in a small midwestern town fallen on hard times. Lonely and isolated, long time employees Martha and Kyle have become friends by default in spite of their drastic age difference, but their dynamic is upset by the arrival of a new worker: young, attractive single mother Rose. The film was also shot in a unusual, linear style -- the actors were not given the entire script at one time, but were told on-location what each scene was.
    Soderbergh said that the idea of simultaneous distribution on three different mediums was his and that he approached 2929 Entertainment to see if he could work out a plan with Wagner and Cuban. They jumped at the concept, which Soderbergh believes makes for a more efficient distribution model than the traditional Hollywood one.
    Soderbergh said, "It's (the idea of day-and-date) more efficient way to do it also because then you have a situation in the case of "Bubble" where you know we're doing publicity for the film and people know January 27th, the movie is coming out and for somebody who might be interested in the movie, who doesn't live near an arthouse theatre but has read about the movie, they can still get access to it while the idea is fresh and as a film-maker I really like that, that they can, if they read about or heard about it, they can go and see it. There's a way for them to see it, they're not being penalized for not being in a town or place where they can see it in a movie theatre."
    Wagner said that the "day-and-date release" model might help reduce what he views as the "inefficiencies" of the current distribution system, citing the examples of customers not having the choice of accessing different formats of the film at the same time, the spiralling costs of advertising each time the film is released in a different format and the iniquitous distribution of revenue amidst theatre owners, distributors and cable operators.
    Wagner said that the film industry has a lot to learn from the music industry, where CD sales are down while downloading is up by as much as 150 percent.
    Wagner added, "It all of a sudden became very apparent that to release it ("Bubble") across all platforms at the same time would make a lot of sense in today's world. You have consumers who are ready for it, you've watched what's happened in the music industry, you see how people behave now thanks to the internet, they want to be in charge. They want to decide how they want it. They don't want to be told - Oh, go to the theatre and then three months later we'll let you watch it in a hotel on pay-per-view, then three months after that, you can buy the DVD - they don't want to hear that."
    Wagner believes that the simultaneous release model holds possibility of increasing the revenue of film exhibitors too, as DVD sale revenue could be shared with them as well.
    But the same-day distribution challenges long-held practices for Hollywood studios that strictly follow the staggered "windows of distribution" model, according to which films are first placed in theatres, hoping for solid box office revenues, then sold months later on DVD or videocassette, and finally offered on pay-per-view cable and to TV broadcasters. Theatre owners are concerned that altering the practice would cannibalize theatre box office sales.
    John Fithian, the President of the National Association of Theatre Owners (NATO), based in Washington D.C. believes that the distribution model touted by Soderbergh and Wagner could spell the death knell for theatre owners and the theatre business. He added that apart from Landmark Theatres, which are owned by 2929 Entertainment, no other theatres have agreed to screen "Bubble" because they do not agree with the "day-and-date release" model. Wagner, however claims that some other theatres have expressed interest in also screening "Bubble" though he would not give any names.
    Fithian said, "When Steven Soderbergh talks about broadening consumer choice through simultaneous release, we think he's got it exactly backwards. Simultaneous release would mean many fewer cinemas in existence. Simultaneous release would mean homogenized product where everything starts to look the same. We think the movie industry as a whole would sell many fewer movies were they to go to a simultaneous release model."
    Fithian and the team of Wagner and Soderbergh disagree on another key factor that will decide the success or failure of the new release model -- whether major Hollywood studios will release big films using this method. Wagner and Soderbergh say that several major studios are dabbling with the new distribution model whereas Fithian insists that only one major studio is taking the idea seriously.
    Meanwhile, other Hollywood voices are weighing in on the future of the "omni-debut". George Clooney, who was worked with Soderbergh on many films, and also founded a production company called "Section Eight" along with Soderbergh, touched upon the question of whether simultaneous distribution will be reserved for smaller, low-budget films, rather than the mega Hollywood releases.
    Clooney said "I think any way you can get films out there is a good idea. I don't think it's, Steven isn't designing it to do for all films to work that way, but I think there's a specific niche for that to work really well."
    Incidentally, "Section Eight" will be shutting down at the beginning of the next year.
    Director Ron Howard, on the other hand, believes that the viewer will finally decide the fate of the model of releasing films in theatres, on DVD and on cable and television, at the same time.
    Howard said, "The viewers always wind up telling the film-makers and particularly the companies that release the films, how they want to see them, when they want to see them, how much they want to pay, it's really always up to them, and so technology is creating a kind of, arranging new possibilities as to how you can see films. As a storyteller, as long as people want to see them, somehow, someway, and I know I'm going to get to tell stories, I'm happy."
    So, far two of the companies that are definitely forging ahead with the new distribution model - 2929 Entertainment and Rainbow Media - both are uniquely positioned to make the "omni-debut" idea work. Rainbow owns the movie studio IFC Films as well as cable network IFC, and therefore the simultaneous distribution task becomes easier. The company is also reportedly pitching a new video-on-demand service to cable cable operators across the country.
    2929 Entertainment too can afford to be self-sufficient while implanting the "day-and-date release" model as they have their own theatres - Landmark Theatres, their own film distribution company - "Magnolia Pictures". They also have two production companies that produce and finance films - 2929 Productions, which produces films in the $10-$40 (USD) million budget range and HDNet Films, which produces smaller-budget HD movies. And also very conveniently, Wagner and Cuban are partnered in HDNet and HDNet Movies, two general entertainment high-definition television networks.
    Now, the question is whether one might also see a major studio doing a "day-and-date release" for a big-budget Hollywood film, starring A-list actors, to an extensive gamut of distributors and theatre owners. Soderbegh thinks that while it might be quite some time before that happens, that it is "inevitable."
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