What "Rent" Means

http://www.digitalcinemareport.com/node/296

 

Submitted by Nick Dager on Tue, 09/09/2008 - 14:41.

 

A year and a half ago, when we first published the Digital Release Update in cooperation with Texas Instrument’s DLP Cinema, the initial update included just nine movies. As you can see in the current Update, times have changed and the biggest change is Rent, which Sony is releasing later this month as alternative content.

 

In that first Update six different companies distributed those movies, which are listed below. Lionsgate led the way with three of the nine films. The current Update lists 23 movies from 16 different distributors that are being released digitally. Lionsgate again leads the way with three digital releases but this time they are joined by Warner Bros. and Sony, also with three releases each. But, in a first for the Update, Sony is releasing a recording of the final Broadway performance of Rent as an alternative content offering to theatres across the country.

 

Although the sheer increase in the number of digital releases and in the number of distributors involved is something of a milestone by itself, the fact that Sony is releasing Rent as alternative content in theatres across the country is more significant. The highly successful Broadway musical has ended after one of the most historic runs ever. Look for that fact to be widely publicized as the release date of the movie version approaches.

 

As with the limited but steadily growing success that opera has enjoyed in movie theatres I anticipate that Rent will do okay. Attending a live opera performance, even if you live in a big city is an expensive proposition. The same is true with live theatre. Throw in the expense of traveling to the handful of big cities that offer that sort of entertainment only adds to the cost. What makes Rent significant for me is the fact that, as far as I’m aware, it is the first time that a major Hollywood studio has offered a widely released alternative content presentation.

 

(As an aside, it will be interesting to see if and when the studios either broadly embrace the term alternative content – a term the studios coined to deride anything in a movie theatre that was not one of their movies – or replace it with something of their won choosing. The Hannah Montana concert movie in 3D was offered as a special event, which it was. But, over time, if there are too many “events” they will stop seeming all that special.)

 

I have long made two predictions that Sony’s release of Rent as alternative content seems to confirm. The first is that Sony – given its involvement of movie production, post-production, distribution and exhibition – would be a long-term leader in digital cinema. The second is that, when all is said and done, the major studios would provide a large share (possibly the largest share) of alternative content. Given their vast libraries of popular content, their expertise at distribution and marketing and the future demand for big screen content of all different kinds, that seemed inevitable.

 

The release of Rent is the first step.

 

Digital Release Update – May 2007

 

28 Weeks Later Fox             

Away From Her Lionsgate         

Show Business: Road to Broadway Regent            

Delta Farce Lionsgate        

Georgia Rule Universal        

Shrek The Third Paramount        

Away From Her Lionsgate        

Pirates of the Caribbean: At Worlds End Buena Vista        

Bug Lionsgate