Burton’s Alice: First Victim of Hollywood’s VOD Future?

It takes a good deal of chutzpah to dictate anything when it comes to a Tim Burton movie. But that’s precisely what Disney is doing with his upcoming 3-D adaptation of Alice in Wonderland.

It has nothing to do with Burton himself, or his dark vision of Lewis Carroll’s fairy tale. Rather, Burton finds himself in the middle of an economic struggle in Hollywood, a key player in a skirmish that is leaving studios conflicted, torn between favoring boffo box office at the movie theater or reaping the profits generated by DVD sales.

Skimming through this Hollywood Reporter piece, which is really quite a fascinating read (see the full thing here), the situation appears to be this: A theatrical run, outside that huge first weekend, is more or less a marketing campaign for the DVD release. That’s where the real money is made, and for a long time now, the movie studios have gone up against the movie theater chains, with a desire to shrink the DVD “window.” The studios want to rush right from theater to DVD, and the theaters have pushed back in kind, saying that a shorter window decreases the urgent desire of customers to come out to the big screen. After all, if a movie’s going to be on DVD in four weeks, maybe I’ll just wait to rent it, but if that was now four months, then I would probably just cave in and buy a theater ticket. Make sense?

Well Disney is going one step further. Rather than just shrinking the DVD window, and focusing on putting films on DVD, Blu-Ray and Video-On-Demand sooner than ever before, they want to deliberately restrict the length of the screening window in theaters. And Alice will be the first project where they set out to experiment with doing just that: Restrict the number of weeks that it will show on theater screens, touting the theatrical experience as a limited-time event, and then rush the whole project onto cable systems, and DVD. Quoting from the article:

Normally, movies play in first-run theaters for up to 16 weeks. Disney is talking about a theatrical run of just under 13 weeks on “Alice,” a 3D motion-capture/live-action fantasy helmed by Tim Burton and starring Johnny Depp. The studio would benefit by truncating the film’s theatrical run as the title is a near sure shot for big success in home entertainment with its family-friendly subject matter and well-known cast. So the quicker Disney can get it into DVD and Blu-ray Disc release the better.

To be honest, I’m conflicted about the whole thing; I love being able to order up movies on my TV, and going to the theaters nowadays is often both an overpriced and overtly obnoxious experience.

That said, I still believe a movie theater is the place to experience a movie. It is the immersive, communal, awe-inspiring throne to cinema. For better or worse, though, these are the economics of Hollywood, and they apply even to someone as big as Tim Burton, and to a project as hotly anticipated as Alice in Wonderland.

What do you think? Are they screwing over Burton?

More at Techland: Love at First Byte – Your Nerdy Valentine’s Day Guide

http://www.twitter.com/leverus Lev Grossman

I would’ve taken the question mark out of that headline
mistersurreal

I honestly don’t like theaters anymore. They’re crowded, noisy, smelly, and uncomfortable, not to mention expensive. I would much rather rent the DVD on Netflix. These days, TV’s are big enough that the tradeoff in screen size for the privacy and comfort of home is a no brainer.

Unfortunately for theaters, the ubiquity of quality televisions and the ease of access to DVD’s and Cable On-Demand has made them obsolete in my view. I’ve not met many who disagree.
tyrantking

Why do I still have black bars on my hdtv when watching a film? I freaking hate that. I thought that’s why hdtv’s had a wider aspect ratio. We consumers met Hollywood halfway and purchased our wider screened hdtvs. It is time for Hollywood to meet us there by changing the aspect ratio of their “films” to fit our tvs.
masurix

That’s mind-boggling. I understand their wanting to do this – those Lexuses (Lexii?) aren’t going to pay for themselves. But rushing a 3D movie out of the theatres and into a medium that does not support 3D is pretty stupid. Color me boggled.
dennitzio

tyrantking, there’s a long story behind why 16×9 (1.77:1) became the adopted standard that has to do with Japan where HDTV was first used for news, and nothing to do with Hollywood’s filmmakers. Now days we do shoot – and finish, often – on 16×9, especially low-budget, but as long as movies are released for the majority on film, you’ll probably still see 1.85 as the norm and the 2.35 for ‘Scope films. Frankly, 1.77 lousy for movie theaters because it’s too tall. Get used to black bars or buy one of the new wider-wide-screen TVs.

Steven, Disney is the MASTER of controlling their releases. Note that you can’t get “Aladdin” right now on Netflix at all – you have to wait for the next release. How many 25th or 50th anniversary releases have you seen of Disney movies, often the only way to get them on whatever medium we’re talking about? They’re really careful about making sure they control when you even can see something and to keep the demand higher by restricting access. Whether that’ll help or hinder in the theaters with a first run, we’ll see, but it’s a bold move entirely in keeping with their policies.

It’s also entirely likely that their accountants have figured it’ll be drummed out in a couple of weeks anyway so why not make it seem like they did it on purpose.
jeriv

Personally, I prefer the theater experience. But then again, I don’t go to regular theaters anymore.

Living in Austin, TX, I can head over to the Alamo Drafthouse. There, I can sit down, order a nice lunch/dinner with drinks, and watch the movie in its full theater glory while eating. It’s great.

Was hard to imagine what it would be like before I went the first time, but wouldn’t have it any other way anymore. It is a much better experience than just going to a regular theater, or watching it at home.
Kemper

I could maybe see the logic in limiting the number of weeks that some movies would play. For example, The Hangover is a movie that I might have waited for DVD if I knew that it was coming a few weeks later.

However, I find it really strange that they’re going to try this on Alice in the wake of Avatar. Cameron laid a blueprint for how to make make a lot of coin by making it an experience that demands you see it the theater. From the previews I saw of Alice that played up the 3D & IMAX options, you’d think this would be a movie that they’d want to try and give the longplay in the theater and do the bumrush to DVD on other movies that are less about spectacular images.
jeffreytz

I think for a movie like this, especially 3D, the theater is the place to see it. If you like it, than you would get the DVD, but if you’re interested in seeing it (because it’s 3D, or your a Tim Burton fan, or whatever), you’re probably going to see this in the first couple of weeks.

Now other stuff like indie dramas and the like I rarely bother going to the theater for anyway, they immediately go on my “saved” list on Netflix when I hear about them or read a good review, and months later when they pop up as available its a nice surprise. So I don’t think this “window” thing is really that big a deal. The people who are going to go to the theater are going to go anyway. The one exception, ironically, would be family far imo. If there’s a known short theater exhibition window, families might truly opt out of dragging all the kids to the theater and all the hassle and expense that entails and just wait for the DVD. Then again, the theater keeps the kids busy for a couple of hours on a winter day.

Comment on Alice itself: is this really a “family” movie? I was hoping this was going to be a little darker, closer to the source material.
michaeljspinelli

i’m confused. why will this hurt burton? does he get a cut of box office money?

if so, won’t directors in the future just cut a deal where they get a cut of the DVD sales?

also, 13 weeks is not much shorter than 16. how much money will the movie be making in those final three weeks? 5-8 million max.