The death of movie theaters?

Last week, Steven Soderbergh's latest movie, Bubble, was released, for the first time, in theaters, on DVD, and on a TV channel all at the same time. This event brought a lot of publicity to the picture, which floundered nonetheless at the box office, quite likely precisely because of its widespread release on so many different media.

The producers claimed to have decided to release the movie this way (instead of following the traditional theatrical release, followed by a DVD between 6 and 12 months later, and TV showings on subscription channels like HBO in 18 to 24 months) in order to "accelerate the timetable for getting their money back."

Well, as Brandon Gray puts it in this Box Office Mojo article:

Bubble's box office points out how a simultaneous release on television and DVD effectively eliminates the theatrical window of revenue -—people are more apt to choose the most convenient formats, which are TV and DVD - —and, hence, reduces the overall revenue pie.

Movie theater chains' owners can't be too happy about such a strategy, and I can't blame them. It would only take a few successes, maybe just a couple, for more and more movies being released this way, which would cut their revenues dramatically. Bubble's intake for the first weekend in release was, supposedly, $5 million dollars, but it made only $70,664 in theaters.

With such low box office receipts, more and more theaters (especially those shiny mega-multiplexes) would be forced to shut down. Only art houses, whose usual box office is probably less than $70,000 per weekend anyway, would survive. Say goodbye to viewing epics and blockbusters on huge screens, with digital dolby surround and stadium seating. You won't see that in art houses.

I'm glad that Bubble didn't make a big splash at the box office (those $5 million are mostly from expected rather than actual sales, since they count DVDs shipped to retailers, not actually sold,) because, frankly, I like going to the theater to watch a movie on a big screen, in the dark, with a great sound system.

Yes, as soon as I can I expect to buy a big screen TV with a good surround sound system at home, which will make my viewing experience great even if I'm not in a movie theater. But you can't beat the experience of watching a movie like Titanic, or The Lord of the Rings on the big screen.

George Lucas started the whole 'should we move to digital projection right away or stay with the traditional format a while longer' debate , and that's one thing. But actually killing the movie theater viewing experience? Sorry, I don't agree with that.