Responding to increased consumer demand, and in response to the fact that only 15 percent of worldwide Hollywood film revenues come from box-office profits, and that two-thirds of the income for the six major studios now comes from the home theater divisions, the majors have begun to pursue their own online distribution options by offering feature-length films already available on DVD for legal downloading, including MovieLink ( ), a joint venture of MGM, Paramount, Sony, Universal, and Warner Bros.; and CinemaNow ( ), financed in part by Lions Gate and Cisco Systems. In December 2005, Apple Computer also began to distribute animated short films from Pixar (co-owned by Apple CEO Steve Jobs), Disney-ABC television programs, and music videos through its popular iTunes music download service. While no feature-length films are included in Apple's library, the January 2006 purchase of Pixar by Disney may facilitate the distribution of Disney's feature films through Apple's service.
By the end of the summer of 2005, industry analysts and mainstream news outlets were announcing the "death of the movie theater" as industry figures and independent film companies began to question and challenge traditional film release windows. Director and producer Steven Soderbergh ( sex, lies, and videotape [1989], Traffic [2000], Erin Brockovich [2000], Oceans Eleven [2001]) entered into an agreement with 2929 Entertainment, HDNet Films, and Landmark Theatres to produce and direct six films to be released simultaneously to theaters, DVD home video, and on HDNet high-definition cable and satellite channels. For the 26, January 2006, "stacked release" of the first film from that venture, Bubble , 2929 Entertainment agreed to share 1 percent of the home video DVD profits with theater owners who exhibited the film. Another new distribution model of simultaneous releases was announced in July 2005 by ClickStarInc.com, a Web venture between Intel Corp. and Revelations Entertainment, co-founded by actor Morgan Freeman. ClickStar will offer legal downloading of original feature films before they are released on DVD and while they are still in first-run theaters. Freeman's considerable star power, which he is lending to several of the ClickStar films, may give a film enough exposure through its Web release to be distributed through other media, like cable television.
CinemaNow to Offer Selected Programs from HDNet’s High-Definition Library
Responding to increased consumer demand, and in response to the fact that only 15 percent of worldwide Hollywood film revenues come from box-office profits, and that two-thirds of the income for the six major studios now comes from the home theater divisions, the majors have begun to pursue their own online distribution options by offering feature-length films already available on DVD for legal downloading, including MovieLink ( ), a joint venture of MGM, Paramount, Sony, Universal, and Warner Bros.; and CinemaNow ( ), financed in part by Lions Gate and Cisco Systems. In December 2005, Apple Computer also began to distribute animated short films from Pixar (co-owned by Apple CEO Steve Jobs), Disney-ABC television programs, and music videos through its popular iTunes music download service. While no feature-length films are included inApple's library, the January 2006 purchase of Pixar by Disney may facilitate the distribution of Disney's feature films through Apple's service.
By the end of the summer of 2005, industry analysts and mainstream news outlets were announcing the "death of the movie theater" as industry figures and independent film companies began to question and challenge traditional film release windows. Director and producer Steven Soderbergh (sex, lies, and videotape [1989], Traffic [2000], Erin Brockovich [2000], Oceans Eleven [2001]) entered into an agreement with 2929 Entertainment, HDNet Films, and Landmark Theatres to produce and direct six films to be released simultaneously to theaters, DVD home video, and on HDNet high-definition cable and satellite channels. For the 26, January 2006, "stacked release" of the first film from that venture, Bubble, 2929 Entertainment agreed to share 1 percent of the home video DVD profits with theater owners who exhibited the film. Another new distribution model of simultaneous releases was announced in July 2005 by ClickStarInc.com, a Web venture between Intel Corp. and Revelations Entertainment, co-founded by actor Morgan Freeman. ClickStar will offer legal downloading of original feature films before they are released on DVD and while they are still in first-run theaters. Freeman's considerable star power, which he is lending to several of the ClickStar films, may give a film enough exposure through its Web release to be distributed through other media, like cable television. 2ff7e9595c
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