New Jack City: Disney Contemplates Shrunken Theatrical Window – Theatres Mad as Hell!

There’s a storm brewing between the world’s theater owners and the Walt Disney movie empire!

The Mouse-House recently announced that with its release of Tim Burton’s ALICE IN WONDERLAND starring Johnny Depp, it plans to tighten the window between theatrical distribution of certain films from its present 16 weeks—to just 13 weeks!

Thus the studio will benefit by getting the ALICE into the hands of consumers the first week of June—the start of summer – which traditionally is a great DVD selling time.

God only knows DVD sales are into the crapper.

If the concept flies, similar reasoning could come into play with the early fall releases which the studio then could take to the street for the big Thanksgiving/Christmas holiday DVD buying season.

Should this scenario play out as Disney hopes, look for other major distributors to follow suit with similar reduced theatrical windows.

Further, exhibitors wonder if studios will limit the shrunken windows between theatrical and DVD availability to (as promised) a couple of tentpole titles per year—per studio.

We shall see…

And film companies could spend less DVD marketing dollars by compressing the release time, maximizing DVD revenue which in actuality helps finance the production of today’s high cost movies.

A number of leading exhibitors around the world are allegedly contemplating boycotting Disney’s ALICE IN WONDERLAND.

But can they afford to—especially in competitive markets?

As one regional film buyer told me this week (who requested his name or company affiliation not be mentioned) “…it’s like those greedy airlines, Hollywood is nickel-and-diming us to death.”

It’s certain to be a hot topic at next months international ShoWest movie convention in Las Vegas. We’ll be there and give you the inside skinny.

And so the uneasy relationship between the studios and theaters flourishes. Stay tuned.

Jack Poessiger

http://www.mb-kc.com/
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10 Responses to New Jack City: Disney Contemplates Shrunken Theatrical Window – Theatres Mad as Hell!

  1. Anonymous says:

    jojo
    jack: who cares? i go to the movies and pay
    $20. Boring column. Would someone please turn
    this guy off once and for all.
    Maybe hearne can do a review on the star’s
    website stories. More boring crap.
    Bring on tony and hall. AT least we can have
    some controversey with them. Who care when they
    put out a dvd or not. The guys on this site
    could care less unless it had to do with
    women/football/tiger/tiger’s mistresss/kietzman/
    wright or pioli and haley. The resto f the articles can be deleted and noone would notice.

  2. Anonymous says:

    jojo
    jack…stop plagarizing…you lifted this stuff.

  3. Anonymous says:

    jojo
    jack…save your money…noone cares what happens at that convention in vegas..unless
    you get some hookers at the craps table..now
    that wouold be real news!

  4. Anonymous says:

    jojo
    jack..i feel bad that noone reads or comments about your stories. So I’ll just add a few
    more. That way people will think there’s something exciting in the piece.
    And jack..while in vegas…stop off at olympic
    gardens…heard they’ve got some new hot young
    unlv girls dancing up one hell of a storm.
    But don’t forget dances are $20 each..not the
    $1 you normally pay at bazookas.

  5. Anonymous says:

    jojo
    hey jack..one more thing. You qouted some
    duffass who didn’t want to lose his job saying
    “hollywood is nickel and diming us to death”…
    well that dude is wrong. HOllywood is $10 and
    $20 ing us to death with the pure crap they
    put out.
    I haven’t seen a great movie since Costner’s
    WAterworld and tin cup. Now those were
    masterpieces.
    When hollywood starts putting out great movies
    like “Conan” and “2012” I’ll go back to spending
    $10 a movie. Til then…there’s not a damn good
    picture in the whole bunch.

  6. Anonymous says:

    jojo
    Hell yes jack. I’m preparing to picket the
    Palazzo theatre in Olathe. How dare those
    capitalist pigs pull their movies from
    the theatres after just 13 weeks.
    Hell…thats 3 less weeks to sell that old
    grimy popcorn for $20 a barrel or their
    old royals stadium hot dogs for $15 or their
    boxes of jujubees for $4. How dare those
    movie companies try to rip off the public
    or their theatre comapnies. Who do they
    think they are?

  7. Anonymous says:

    jojo
    and jack..i heard amc theatres have added
    “snack police”. Like the sky marshalls, they
    comb theatres for terrorists trying to sneak
    in chocolate covered peanuts, raisenettes,
    and boxes of 3 month old popcorn.
    Its a major security issue and an amc official
    …who requested his name or company affiliation
    not be revealed…said ” We’re closing in
    on them. We’re making them take off their shoes
    for fear of having free milk duds and cherry
    licorice penetrate our theatres. This is all out
    war…and now that Mr. Bulky has reduced their
    per pound prices we’re bringing in all our
    forces and manpower to protect our seats from
    the gum chewers who stick their old worn out
    gum on our chairs underside…we really mean
    business this time”

  8. Anonymous says:

    jon
    jojo you should be posting on gatewaycityradio.com. Your bull-
    shit goes over great on that
    site.
    Matter of fact aren’t you the
    homoxsexual lover of radioman?
    Seriously guy you need to get
    a life or at least go in for
    treatments.
    Come to think of it a brushup
    in geography wouldn’t hurt either.
    You mentioned the Palazzo in
    Olathe. It’s in Overland Park.
    Too bad they won’t let you enter
    OP because they’ve got a great
    public mental health facility.
    Now get back in the basement and
    try to masturbate between posts.

  9. Anonymous says:

    jojo
    jon…good to see you in good spirits. What
    is gateway city radi? Do they need some good
    comments there? I’ll check it out.
    But come on jon..all my posts in this segment
    were toungue in cheek…trying to be funny..
    nad some people have a sense of humor….
    don’t take it personally…please.

  10. Anonymous says:

    jackp
    hey jojo—good hearing from you again. Glad you’re having fun.

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