While some movie studio execs are still claiming that it's
not "technically possible" to release movies in the theaters and elsewhere at the same time, Mark Cuban forges ahead doing just that. A couple years ago he made news for doing a
simultaneous theater and DVD release of a Steven Soderbergh film, recognizing that people want to watch a movie wherever it's most convenient to them. Unfortunately, short-sighted theater owners
boycotted the movie and the press quickly
condemned this "day and date" technique as a failure. Of course, it didn't help that the movie just wasn't that good.
However, that experience hasn't stopped Cuban from continuing to experiment and push the movie industry into this century. His latest, as pointed out by
Carlo, is that the new Demi Moore and Michael Caine movie
Flawless is actually
debuting on Cuban's HDNet TV channel two days before the theatrical release. Slowly, but surely, perhaps theater owners will recognize that they can't rely on artificial scarcity to get people into the seats. They'll have to start
innovating and offering a better experience. Perhaps it's worth noting that Cuban is also a theater owner... and appears to actually be working hard on
making the theater experience better and
experimenting with unique business models. If he, as a theater owner, isn't scared of "competing" against home theaters, why are other theater owners so afraid?
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