The big issue is that everyone has a huge HDTV screen in their home now. And the spectacle of the huge action/sci-fi/fantasy tentpoles is rewarded at the cinema.
The movies I enjoy the most, which are usually the talkier headier Oscar race fare, have three problems.
First, you don't lose a lot in the translation from cinema to home viewing, since it people talking on a screen, not battles and special effects, etc. And I have a big enough screen at home already to wait.
Second, they pretend they are like those bigger movies, with "limited" releases at the end of the year to qualify for Oscars, but then they disappear and may not open big until a month or so later, and then roll out VOD/DVD release in the summer, all while awards screeners of their movies flooded the Internet at the end of the previous year. So, by the time many of them hit theaters, the movie was already available to download for quite a while.
Third, the delayed global strategy, where a movie that was a hit in Australia, the UK, or some such last year is released in the US like a new entity when, again, you can download 1080p BluRay rips of it online from the original release.
So, the entire strategy of the smaller pictures is hurt by their Oscar goals, pirated copies, and a slower embrace of the same technology that is killing it. Very few do VOD same day as theaters, etc.
Whereas the big effects movies are almost never leaked online early, benefit from seeing it on a huge screen rather than waiting, and typically the good copies available for download are delayed much longer. So, if you really want to see it, going to the movie theater is your best option.
Updated On: 12/14/14 at 05:20 PM
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