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When Windows Collapse It’s Good for Disney

This is huge:

The UK's biggest movie theatre chain Odeon has now ended its standoff with the Walt Disney Co. It joined exhibitors Vue and Cineworld to show Alice In Wonderland as scheduled. What a win for Bob Iger and what a sea-change for filmgoers. It’ll end up like Korea where a movie plays for a few weeks in cinemas and then, snap your fingers, and all formats are available at a variety of prices. Disney decided to stare down exhibitors both here in the UK and in the U.S. by imposing a 12-week theatrical window instead of the standard lag between a film appearing in cinemas and then going to DVD of 17 weeks. 

--Deadline Hollywood

12 is the new 17, baby. Soon 8 could be the new 12. The collapsing of the so-called "theatrical window" is pretty much a foregone conclusion, so maybe that's why theater chains have conceded at the outset. The thinking is, a movie makes 97% of its theatrical total in the first 8 weeks. Why wait longer to bring it out on DVD and VOD, giving pirates more weeks where they have a home video monopoly? Well, for one thing, the standard contract with theater owners says they get more money the more weeks a movie plays. So they hate shortening the window.

But the studios love it, and they own the product. For every week the window shortens from opening weekend, the movie that they just spent a lot of money to market is fresher in peoples' minds.

If Disney likes the numbers they see, watch them to make it standard practice. And watch the other studios follow suit.

One little battle over one movie's theatrical window in England could be a huge moment for the industry at large. Red pill or blue pill? Which is the one that makes you huge?

About J. Ott

John Ott is a writer, filmmaker and futurist. Follow him on Twitter, Facebook and Google+.