Warner Brothers’ decision to stream films on the same day the studio releases them theatrically has put into sharp focus the role, if any, that theaters will play in the years ahead.
Warner Brothers’ decision to stream films on the same day the studio releases them theatrically has put into sharp focus the role, if any, that theaters will play in the years ahead. It’s not a new debate of course—theaters have survived the arrival of television, Betamax, VHS, and DVD. But will it survive streaming and the internet? Clues to the answer lie not with the opinions of movie moguls but with the habits of flyover country, the people whose interests and opinions have been routinely ignored for half a century when it comes to the kinds of movies they’d like to see. I’ve encountered this disconnect many times in producing, marketing and distributing movies, but perhaps no more clearly than the day that a prominent head of a major Hollywood film company came into Mel Gibson’s office for an early screening of his soon-to-be blockbuster hit movie, The Passion of The Christ. As seven or eight of us gathered around Gibson’s conference table to watch, uncertainty was still in the air—Gibson had no distributor at that point and it was unclear if theaters would be receptive to a violent movie about a 2,000-year-old story told in Aramaic with English subtitles. Mel left the room to pray the rosary, hoping the important people in the room—and one in particular who owned a theatrical chain—would make a path for his labor of love that had so far been passed over by every major studio. As the lights came up he began to solicit opinions about the film. That’s when the powerful and experienced Hollywood mogul told Gibson that, in his estimation, the film had no chance of earning any money at the box office, but might make some at DVD, so, he recommended, Gibson should put it in theaters for free. As the producer of the film’s official inspired-by soundtrack, and having also worked on its marketing, I had already seen the powerful effect the film was having on those we invited to watch it.
