BYTE FOR THOUGHT: What exactly should be on Video On Demand?
Ok, listen up you filmmakers and film platform programmers iTunes, Netflix, Amazon and whoever else preparing to dip their balance sheets into the video on demand pool, we need to have some honest words. What I am about to say is becoming a matter of hot debate and FOF just linked up an article from Indiewire writer Paula Bernstein on the future of VOD and indie releases.
Let me just get something out of the way, I love watching movies in a theater -- films if I'm trying to be more sophisticated -- I even write about film covering Flix Not To Miss, but there is a radical shift happening and film companies have to acknowledge it.
Why should you listen to me?
Because I am that elusive movie goer X -- I see films outside of my demographic profile and I see a lot of movies, generally 2-3 a week. Pacific Rim? Saw it in the movie theater surrounded by boys and boy-men. The Best Man Holiday? Wanted to head up to Harlem to have the experience of watching it opening night in a packed theater. The Broken Circle Breakdown? The Belgian bluegrass kid-has-cancer movie about a marriage going off the rails? Yep, saw it with 30 other people on a Saturday night at Landmark Theater before heading out for a night of drinking with my peeps. I've seen Planes with kids I was babysitting and ran out to see Armstrong lie it up in the documentary The Armstrong Lie. You get the picture, I see it all. And I see the writing on the wall, but I don't know if many distributors and even the filmmakers do.
Maybe you shouldn't release your film in a theater. At all.
My epiphany happened while I was sitting there watching The Broken Circle Breakdown, a spectacular film with inspiring and passionate musical performances that puts the Johnny Cash biopic Walk The Line to shame. I looked around the theater and realized "couldn't I have seen this on the shamefully big TV at home?" In fact, I looked for it on iTunes for days before heading to Landmark Theaters after reading about Veerle Baetens heartbreaking performance. Why? Because I don't think its the kind of movie you need to see in the theater. Unless it is a visually stunning indie like Punch Drunk Love, The Tree of Life or Enter The Void, I don't think it makes financial sense to me as a consumer.
Action movies such as Man of Tai Chi or sci-fi films probably do much better releasing in a movie theater first and having a longer run, before moving to iTunes. I saw the title The Last Days on Mars on iTunes and thought the movie must be bad since why would they release a sci-fi movie for television before general release in a movie theater? I love the star Liev Schreiber, so I gave it a chance by watching the preview and looking at the Rotten Tomato ratings, but decided against it because I was more willing to give a smaller more critically acclaimed movie a view on iTunes. You know what I chose on iTunes instead? Claire Denis' new thriller Bastards which is playing concurrently at IFC Theater.
What should be released on VOD with a minimal or maybe even non-existent run in a movie theater? Small critically acclaimed indies that will appeal to younger people, movies with lots of sex (hello, Blue is the Warmest Color should be on demand), and horror movies. 28 Hotel Rooms, Concussion, About Cherry, and The Human Centipede all fit into these categories. These kinds of films should not spend weeks in the theater. The Human Centipede and Blue is the Warmest Color are controversial movies so they get theater attendance mileage from the media coverage but ask IFC, the horror movie The Human Centipede sure had more legs when it went to video on demand (disturbing isn't it?).
There are always exceptions to these rules. In her article, Ms. Bernstein mentioned Margin Call, a small indie about the financial crisis that did well in theaters and on demand. It wasn't because it was a fantastic film or the marketing was that great. My theory is two words: older people. People of a certain age still like to see movies, especially good smart movies and will pay money to sit in a theater rather than find and fiddle with the Apple TV remote. Go sit in a Lincoln Center Theater and see the sea of white in the seats in front of you at their screenings.
Movies like Concussion and Mother of George, I saw in a movie theater with about 6 other people in the audience so I think they are probably doing better on iTunes or Time Warner On Demand. But small movies such as these have a challenge ahead of them. The New York Times will review any movie that has a week run in a New York theater so perhaps the distribution strategy is to release them in theaters first and get good media coverage and word of mouth first. But is that strategy old (media) school thinking?
Is it time Apple, Amazon, or Netflix releases a short streaming film show (hey, I'm available to produce and/or host) that loads when you boot up your Apple TV, XBox or Roku player, giving an overview on new releases? These platforms shouldn't rely on someone like me spending an hour and half (that's right, ask my annoyed husband) scrolling through interesting titles. These platforms also need to streamline the customer/Rotten Tomatoes ratings so they are more readily viewed. Many of my friends don't even read reviews anymore, they rely solely on Rotten Tomatoes in deciding what movie to watch!
The flight towards film streaming will continue but the challenge for distributors and marketers will be spotlighting under the radar indies. Good films can find their audience without people paying for it in a theater, but new technology and social media will have to be part of the game plan. This sounds like bad news for movie theaters, but Alamo Drafthouse is on to something. Going to the theater is still an experience, just make it worthwhile.
(so still send those movie passes my way)
That's my pretty big byte for thought. . .
- M.A St John (@theReelScoop)
