Theater Owners Chief Says Day-and-Date Movies are ‘Dead as a Serious Business Model’
variety.comBrent Lang Executive Editor of Film and MediaThe movie theater industry’s top lobbyist said that the persistent experimentation that saw studios release movies in cinemas at the same time they landed on streaming or on video-on-demand is over. “I am pleased to announce that simultaneous release is dead as a serious business model, and piracy is what killed it,” John Fithian, head of the National Association of Theatre Owners, told a packed auditorium of exhibitors on Tuesday at CinemaCon.
Fithian didn’t claim that release windows, industry parlance for the length of time that movies are available exclusively in theaters, is going to get longer.
Most have been cut in half with the majority of studios waiting 45 days to debut films in the home, compared to the 90 days that were the standard before COVID hit.
But the NATO chief tried to argue that the new window was more of a compromise, one that preserved the kind of exclusivity that cinemas need to remain viable, while also allowing studios to more quickly capitalize on rental revenues.
Read more on variety.com
