First simultaneous release movie opening tonight

With a tiny budget of US$1.6 million plus a wad of pocket lint, no professional actors, and a new and highly controversial delivery schedule, Bubble might look like just another straight-out-of-film-school project, destined for eternal irrelevance. But all the major movie studios are watching this release, and so are the national movie theater chains. When an experiment like this is helmed by a director of Academy Award winner Steven Soderbergh's caliber, and backed by maverick billionares like former Broadcast.com executives Mark Cuban and Todd Wagner, an entire industry or two sits up and takes notice as the traditional "release window" model is replaced with a simultaneous theatrical, cable TV, and DVD release.

Bubble, a small film by any measure, tells the tale of a doll factory with ménage à trois intrigues and a murder mystery, shot in all-digital and with more cuts than camera movements. The film has already completed a tour of the festival circuit (Venice, Toronto, and New York) to mixed reviews. There is very little money riding on the success of Bubble, and with no Hollywood egos besides that of the director involved (the movie was shot on location in Parkersburg, WV, and all the characters are played by locals), it's a pretty low-risk candidate for a bold experiment. Wagner and Cuban not only financed the production, but their production company 2929 Productions also owns Landmark Theaters, with its 215 screens in 15 states, and the HDNet cable network, both of which specialize in independent film, and 2929 distributes its own DVDs. Owning the entire production and distrubution chain end-to-end has been an overarching goal for the Cuban/Wagner company, and it is what made simultaneous release possible, since all the other movie theater chains have predictably declined to show the movie at all:

The biggest chains, including AMC Entertainment, Cinemark Entertainment and National Amusements, have said they have no interest in carrying a film with a model that could undercut their own business.

"We feel that day and date (for a DVD release) dilutes the theatrical release," said Terrell Falk, a Cinemark spokeswoman. "This wouldn't be something we would show."

Wagner doesn't see it that way. He believes that the total audience will be larger under the new model, as people who wouldn't have gone to the theater anyway and would have forgotten about the movie by the time a DVD was available under the old system can get their hands on the content while the marketing message is still fresh in their minds. With a little bit of revenue sharing (2929 will hand over one percent of their DVD revenues for Bubble to theater owners who show the movie; it's unclear whether or not Landmark venues qualify for a cut), the idea is that everyone should end up making more money, theater chains included, especially since the early-release DVDs will sell for higher prices than the regular home video fare. In the case of Bubble, for example, the DVD will start out at $30, with the dual purpose to rake in higher margins and to preserve some of the incentive to go see it at your friendly neighborhood movie theater. There will also be no need to run separate marketing campaigns for each channel, saving tens of millions of dollars for each Hollywood release and letting small-budget projects breathe a little easier. Wagner offers up this explanation:

"This way we can cut through the clutter once, spend the money once and allow people to buy it however they want to consume it, whenever they want to watch it. Imagine that, literally listening to consumers."

Whenever, wherever isn't just a Shakira song anymore—it was virtually the theme song of the 2006 CES. But we're not done yet: there may be a third benefit to simultaneous releases, and one that movie studios will monitor closely. There should be less demand for pirated advance copies if you can get the real deal, legally, while you still want it:

WIRED: Why did you decide to release Bubble in all formats at once?

SODERBERGH: Name any big-title movie that's come out in the last four years. It has been available in all formats on the day of release. It's called piracy. Peter Jackson's Lord of the Rings, Ocean's Eleven, and Ocean's Twelve – I saw them on Canal Street on opening day. Simultaneous release is already here. We're just trying to gain control over it. I think it would be really interesting to have a movie out in release and then, just a few weeks later say, "Here's version 2.0, recut, rescored." The other version is still out there – people can see either or both. For instance, right now I know I could do two very different versions of The Good German.

I don't know about you, but substantially different Director's Cuts sounds like something I'd consider paying for more than once, rather than the current model, where you get the exact same thing each time you open your wallet, just in different formats. Fearing change, the entertainment giants of today are sticking to that old, but safe, notion as hard as they can:

The main questions are: Does the popularity of one format take away from the audience for the other? Or does the option of home viewing lure in people who wouldn't have gone to the theater anyway, thus creating new customers instead of cannibalizing the theater crowd?

Some people see a movie multiple times in theaters, then buy it on DVD and watch it later on cable or broadcast TV. The Bubble model could dampen that enthusiasm. "They're making a big mistake in assuming a simultaneous release should be the model for the entire industry," Macdowell says.

Staggering the release of each movie between the various release formats has been a cash cow for many years, and it might not be easy to dislodge that antiquated model because it is also very lucrative. However, times are changing, and the evidence is everywhere: theater attendance is dropping, and so are DVD sales, with a notable exception in conveniently packaged entire seasons of TV series. Movie rentals are dropping at your local Blockbuster or Hollywood store, but picking up at Blockbuster's bitter rent-by-mail rival Netflix. TV shows are being offered up for download through iTunes, and Vongo lets you snag a few feature films. The theme is more convenience, less waiting around, and the guy pointing his remote at the huge HD plasma TV is the boss. Synchronous availability through multiple channels is a natural step, and in the same way the blogs are encouraging personal expression, maybe 'Net-like movie production options will enable softer voices in the film world to be heard as well: