Indy cinema may be going through a paradigm shift in front of us. Rather than release his film in theaters, Ed Burns has said “fuck it” and is having the debut of Purple Violets on iTunes. We get the skinny from MTV movies blog:
“There’s got to be a better way to reach audiences who dig these movies,” filmmaker Edward Burns wondered aloud to me this morning over breakfast in Times Square. Indeed, it’s been increasingly difficult to catch Burns’ directing efforts on the big screen in recent years. “We could barely get anybody into the theaters on my last two films,” he admits. That won’t be a problem for his latest film, “Purple Violets,” starring Selma Blair, Patrick Wilson, and Debra Messing, alongside Burns himself. You won’t find it in any theaters. Instead the film debuted exclusively today on iTunes where you can download it for $14.99. It’s the first experiment of its kind with such a high profile project being released exclusively to the web giant.
“This is the year that art house cinema died,” he says. Referring to the box office disappointments that have been “Rendition” and “Lions for Lambs,” Burns continued “If they’re not going to see Reese Witherspoon and Tom Cruise they’re not coming out to see me and Patrick Wilson. The audience isn’t there anymore.”
Burns is the man. This is the best possible means of release for this project and I think he has chosen wisely. He is a realist, he has laid it out on the line and has adapted so he can continue to make the art that he is proud of and make it available to those that enjoy it. In the interview he goes on to malign the fact that ‘The Squid and the Whale’ made six million dollars in 2005. That movie would have made fifteen million in the mid 90s!” The Squid and the Whale did rule and it was a shame that it did not do better. His point is true, and it saddens me.
I am all for small indy films, but it is a pain in the ass for me to see many of them. I have to drive to Toronto or another city that is playing the film and sit around pompous self important douche-bags. It will be sad to see some films left out of the theatre, but It is a bonus that the fans will see it DAY ONE if they download. To enhance the experience, a movie night with friends would be appropriate and recommended.
People seem to be getting more and more segmented as business fights for your entertainment dollar. With so many films being rammed into theaters, it is hard for the indy film to eek out screens. People with particular tastes have been using the internet for years to be part of communities to share their interests, where locally this is not possible. This means of delivery ensures that all who want to see the film are able to do so and the community as a whole may enjoy it together.
Launching films in this manner was only a matter of time, now we wait to see how successful the model will become.
