"Let's just chill out for a minute, ok guys? I'm the goddamned Nolan."
I’ve kept an interested eye on the Hollywood battle between studios, filmmakers, and theater owners that has formed around the launch of DirecTV’s “premium” VOD service. Right as it was about to debut, a large group of notable filmmakers fired out with an open-letter encouraging the studios to chill their shit till everyone could weigh in on the debate and figure things out, while theater owners began limiting trailers and posters in their theaters for big studio films.
These things seem to have accomplished fuck-all.
Regardless, Christopher Nolan and Jon Favreau have signed the petition against premium VOD, along with former WB Home Video chair, Jim Cardwell. While those are even more high profile names added to a list that includes James Cameron, Quentin Tarantino, Kathryn Bigelow, GDT, and Peter Jackson, it seems the knee-capping of the VOD service may just end up being… the service itself. THR claims there are heavy rumors that the service has had tepid returns, and even if that’s mostly understatement, it at least implies the service isn’t making enough waves to revolutionize or genuinely threaten the theatrical box office (which just blossomed with the biggest Memorial Day returns ever, ever). My biggest fear has always been the dangerous precedent the service sets, but if it ends up flopping and making other service providers hesitant to start new services like it, then maybe it will even have a positive effect in the longish run. This is something Nick and I discussed in detail in that week’s Friday WrapUp.
So while a lot of noise and hysteria gets kicked up around DirecTV’s piddly little service, the big players like Hulu and Netflix continue to try and find their place. Amidst rumors that studios and data providers are growing increasingly wary of the red envelope (or mores specifically, the streaming service that is obsoleting* the envelopes), Miramax has just signed a big deal with Netflix and Hulu Plus that will put hundreds of titles from the studio’s impressive back-library onto those services. Netflix will see a giant dump of great films into their Instant Watch coffers, while the free Hulu service will incorporate around 15 rotating titles from the library per month. Hulu Plus suckers† users will have access to the full assortment as well.
Continue rooting for the content providers at this point- shit’s about to get very heavy. Google, Amazon, and Apple are about to kick up mobile content delivery and cloud servicing to a whole new level, while bandwidth-sucking 4G becomes a thing in the next year and a half. Data demands on ISPs and phone companies are only going to grow, all while Netflix continues to command an extraordinary amount of the nation’s bandwidth all by itself. There is about to be a seriously backlash against the byte-hungry consumer as the providers look for their piece of the pie on both the home and mobile fronts. Prepare for data caps to get stricter, unlimited plans to grow scarcer, and either your connectivity or your wallet to start feeling the pinch. And while Miramax may be aggressively diving into their first deals for digital distribution, expect the biggest and more experienced of the studios to start growing more conservative with their licensing. It’s gonna be a clusterfuck.
I’d love to hear your assessment of the state of the cinema digital consumption market. Toss it out in the comments, the boards, or even call me a fool on twitter.
Source| THR – Netflix Deal, Hulu Deal, Premium VOD Petition
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7 comments
“Hulu Plus
suckers† users will have access to the full assortment as well.”Talk all the shit you want, Renn, but we’ve got Criterion.
Suck on that Netflix.
I’m with GeneJacket on Hulu. Had it for three weeks on Xbox and so far so good. Actually using it more than netflix right now to burn through SNL, Parks/Rec and Community.
The theatrical experience has nothing to worry about. Why? Because giant…monstrous…obscene memorial day box office returns will keep it alive. Who dictates all those dead presidents? NOT the cinephiles. It’s the everyday “I think I’m gonna go out and watch me a movie this weekend cuz the trailer looked good” average film goer. We cinephiles help but we ain’t the bread and butter. Now while I understand peoples fear from this lackadaisical commitment to film [The fair weathers will stay home and VOD!] the fear is unfounded for 1 simple reason. For non-cinephiles most of the time the movie itself is not the motivating factor for people going out on the weekends. Their are exceptions (Like when 300 came out and everyone was talking about going to see that movie for weeks) but most of the time the motivating factor IS going out in the first place. For centuries going out to a theater even WAY back to when the theater featured actors as opposed to those moving picture shows was about social interaction. To this day most of the people I see at malls, movie theaters, and STD clinics are just there to show off their expensive clothes while they walk around aimlessly with friends cat-calling the opposite sex predicated only by a show time. VOD will not change human nature to get out and be seen/interact on the weekends. Especially not in the youth who REALLY motivate box office numbers and whos body of customers get replenished every few years with new suckers who’ll make Twilight VII: rimjobin’ a blockbuster. Thats my 2 cents: It just won’t happen.
I still will always be a Blu-ray guy myself. I’ve bounced back and forth with Netflix Instant Streaming and I rarely use it. The quality (even on fast internet) is nowhere near the HD goodness of Blu-ray.
Occasionally I will rent a movie off of Amazon VoD when it has a limited release like Hobo or Rubber, but I’ll be sticking with my disc format for now.
I hope the whole DirecTV thing dies quick and I also hope maybe studios will put a cap on Netflix Streaming and Hulu streaming.
Yes, clusterfuck is the best word for it. Basically no one knows what movie and TV distribution is going to look like going forward so everyone’s trying to fight for position in the hopes that they’ll be in a good place when the dust settles. As Gojira points out (I enjoyed typing that), there will for the foreseeable future be a market for theatrically-released movies. I think the bigger changes are going to be in TV, where the cable operators are trying to launch streaming services to fend off competition from the studios’ own outlets like Hulu, while everyone is shit-scared of what Google is going to do. As an advertising company they know more about consumers than TV ad agencies, and their moves into distribution through Google TV and increasing original content production via YouTube have got the networks worried.
Biggest Memorial Day ever in dollars. Don’t believe for a nanoseconds that Hollywood managed to pack more asses in seats than previous years – barring a blip. CHUD’s sample space is skewed; 3D may have “only” been 45% of KUNG FU PANDA’s tik sales but that is still 45% times whatever the upcharge, minus last year’s %. That’s the main reason it’s the “biggest”.
Laptop* with video out or Hulu +?
*with wireless mouse and keyboard
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