Comcast's Movie Plan Now Under Fire From Exhibitors

I bet that Comcast COO Stephen Burke had no idea what he was getting into when he announced the seemingly innovative idea at the industry conference NCTA last week that his company was planning to show films on cable at the same time they were released in theaters. Burke indicated that the studios were on board with it, but Disney's Bob Iger was quick to say that they weren't planning on combining any distribution windows, which are almost sacrosanct in the industry, especially to the theater chains, who don't want anything to affect their box-office share. So it really comes as no surprise that two of the nation's biggest exhibitors--Regal and National Amusements--have announced if a new movie is made available for home viewing, they'll refuse to play it in their theaters. Burke could commiserate with Mark Cuban, who faced the same issue this past year when he tried to release director Steven Soderbergh's Bubble simultaneously on in theaters, on TV and on DVD. The only difference is that Cuban owns his own theaters so he could proceed with his experiment, which didn't seem to turn out too well, but that might have had to do with the fact that Bubble was hardly a movie that generated a lot of audience anticipation. With box office looking up this year, I doubt the same pressue is on exhibitors to find new ways to improve the theatrical experience, or for studios to look at new ways to release their product (btw, Paramount has also said it isn't discussing the idea with Comcast, and most of the other studios declined to talk about the issue). But at some point, these discussions are going to have to take place, whether the industry likes it or not. The smartest idea I've heard so far is that a film might be show on pay-per-view a week after its theatrical release, rather than right away. That way, it would still offer a choice to the consumer but wouldn't cannibalize opening weekend box office.

Theater owners blast Comcast movie plan [LA Times]