Interesting WaPo article on how turn-around from theater release to DVD release continues to get shorter and shorter — and not just for box office flops, but for major flicks like The Incredibles (4 months). Biggest reason — piggybacking on publicity, both paid ads and word of mouth.
“Not only do we compete with new releases for DVD street dates, we’re competing with big-event TV programming like ‘Seinfeld’ and big reissues like ‘Star Wars,’ ” says Ben Feingold, president of Sony Home Entertainment, which last year released more films on DVD more quickly than any other studio, according to Home Media Retailing. Movies also don’t stay in theaters as long as they used to, say, even a decade ago, which means they are more likely to show up sooner at a Blockbuster or Best Buy, Feingold adds. “If films are no longer in theaters, then it’s probably not a bad idea to have them available for people to buy while they’re still relatively fresh in people’s minds,” he says. “Then again, it’s really about the best date.”
Having grown up in the day when movies ran in theaters for several months, and maybe, a year or two later (assuming they weren’t re-released to theaters), showing up on TV as a Major Event, seeing DVDs coming out so quickly after the theater release is amazing.
And it does begin to raise the same issue as we see with comics-vs-trade-paperback-collections: at what point does the reduced wait time begin to impact theater attendance? Movies have gotten expensive enough at the theater so that for a lot of folks, going to see a movie of marginal interest is less and less likely. If the film will be out in DVD in a couple of months, that might further reduce the incentive to go out and see anything short of a social-group-shaking or fx-amazing blockbuster.
(via Kottke)