Universal Pictures has ended with egg on his face after the fall embarrassing experience for the next Ben Stiller and Eddie Murphy comedy "
Tower Heist" VOD available three weeks after its release in theaters on November 4. The plan was to test the market for Brett Ratner-directed film in two cities to see how many people pay $ 60 to see the movie at home in the comfort of your living room.
The plan failed. A number of exhibitors, such as the National Recreation and Cinemark, announced that they will not play movies at all, arguing that the process would surely be somewhat cut off ticket sales. Of course, the plan of VOD was only two mid-market city (Portland, Ore., and Atlanta), but using the nuclear option, exhibitors wanted to clarify that Universal's competitors would suffer the same serious consequences of a similar experiment .
I'll have more to say about this in a future column, but here are a few things to chew that has industry insiders question whether the universal experience botched from the start.
First, "Tower Heist" was probably the wrong movie to choose an experiment in which the cooperation of the exhibitors was necessary. Although it has two stars of the brand in the lead roles, sometimes in a month - November - which is already
loaded with movies. In fact, there is another comedy, "A Very Harold & Kumar Christmas 3D" on the same date, with another great comedy that comes a week later, as Adam Sandler, "Jack and Jill".
So if you own a movie, would not be in danger of losing their number, by refusing to play "Tower Heist." This has a lot of leverage for exhibitors who want to punish Universal. Worse, from a universal view advantage is now the weak sister of the Big Six studios. He has no major versions of the program Thanksgiving or Christmas, and there are also movie theaters before coming to big events, "Battleship" in May year. So if the speakers wanted to punish a studio, Universal is the easiest to start a fight.
But here's the real question that has created problems for Universal. The new Comcast business owners were clearly study the realization of this experiment, as if the work of VOD, which will be a great way to enjoy the great advantage of Comcast cable television, making them more quality programming to offer its customers. This can help the bottom line of Comcast, but it creates all sorts of headaches for universal relations, with their talent. After all, top executives at Universal was not Comcast, that phone calls from angry exhibitors field. Universal and was besieged by the talent of the representatives of Stiller, Murphy and Ratner, all hysterical to see your new film is used as a guinea pig in an experiment that could lead to significant reduction in big box office.
It just goes to show: vertical integration in the new world of entertainment, what works for one end of the business does not necessarily work for another. Do you think Universal could have guessed what a disaster that could be possible from the beginning. But it was clear he was going ahead anyway. What is the lesson here? The theater owners are dinosaurs when it comes to adopting new technologies, but here's the thing about dinosaurs - when stamping their feet, it really can hit a loop.
