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European cinema companies revolt over the Hollywood rush to DVD
posted by
Michael Zoldessy
on
February 8, 2007 at 7:50 am
European theaters are revolting against American studios that insist on releasing DVD’s of recent films sooner and sooner. Chains protested by refusing to show “Eragon” and now they’re doing the same for the recent hit, “Night at the Museum.”
The global dispute is about the future of a longstanding film distribution system in which movies are released in timed “windows” beginning with theaters, and then home videos, pay-per-view and, ultimately, television.
In many cases, as in Germany and Britain, these rituals were based on informal agreements with Hollywood film distributors, although in France a law bans DVD sales until six months after the initial appearance in a theater.
For more, go to the International Herald Tribune.
Comments (2)
This is what theater owners in the USA should be doing……no backbone!
I thought the six month window was great. It was a nice delay and made things less over saturated. Most movies come out, and are done with their theater run in around 3 weeks. Thats the sad fact that the theater chains need to work on, and then I think they should slowly start pushing the window back. But then again, one may also say if they made better movies they wouldnt burn out as fast in theaters…