Bubble challenges Hollywood release model
A new film to be released in Texas this Friday will make history by being the first to be distributed in cinemas, on DVD and on-demand via cable at the same time.
Steven Soderbergh's low-budget murder mystery Bubble is pioneering the concept of 'simultaneous release', and in the process challenging Hollywood which for the past half century has held back the content for various release 'windows', starting with cinemas, followed around four months later by home DVD and video rental, then pay-TV, then free TV networks.
Hollywood studios have resisted the move to on-demand entertainment amid concerns it might have an impact on lucrative DVD revenues. US cinema owners now fear the universal release will hit attendances.
Bubble's release is being masterminded by independent media group 2929 Entertainment, owned by entrepreneurs Mark Cuban and Todd Wagner. The pair sold Broadcast.com to Yahoo! in 1999, becoming dot com billionaires.
The movie will be shown in Cuban's Landmark cinemas, and the on-demand cable service HDNet Movies. Four days later it will be released on DVD.
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