Friday, February 12, 2010

The Incredible Shrinking Window

Disney is going where Sony recently went:

Britain's biggest cinema chains may choose not to show Disney's latest animation Alice in Wonderland because the company are proposing to sell it on DVD just 13 weeks after it reaches the big screen.

However, film industry insiders say that even if cinema chains decide to take action, it is unlikely to be enough to shake Disney, due to its solid box office results and eagerly-awaited Toy Story 3 film later this year.

"(Disney has) leverage, and there's no reason why they should refuse to use it," said analyst Hal Vogel of Vogel Capital Management.

Ah yes. Leverage. Where the hell have I heard that word before?

Disney has more of it than the Culver City studio does, and therefore can ram more of its business desires down theater chains throats.

One more splendid example of the power of our multi-national conglomerates.

8 comments:

Anonymous said...

I wonder how much clout Disney will have after Alice and TS3. The rest of its future film projects look frankly like ass.

Anonymous said...

Just you wait until Sorcerer's Apprentice comes out. *snort*

And if that doesn't work, they should just go with High School Musical 4 or Ratatouille 2.

Anonymous said...

I just noticed you said UK's biggest cinema chains may not choose to show Alice, not all.

If that's the case, wouldn't that just give more profits to the smaller cinema chains? I would guess Alice would be popular out there in the UK. If the biggest chains want to lose out on Alice's money, good luck with that.

Steve Hulett said...

I guess it depends on how much reach the small chains have.

Anonymous said...

The UK big-chains own about 90% of the 3-D screens, which's the issue--Disney doesn't expect anyone to see the 2-D version in the first place.

And while it might "serve Disney right" for their distribution practices and new DVD-envy, that's about it: Most of Disney's 3-D runs have been limited to begin with (ie. Toy Story) since that Miley thing, the foreign consequences are just coming back to bite them now.
Not everything is the "future death of the company", but it might help keep priorities in check.

Anonymous said...

Um...Alice was shot in 2D. The stereo image is faked afterwards. It was not shot in 3D.

Anonymous said...

How do you even do that with live action? When you shift POV for the second camera, live photographic image information is missing. How do you fake it?

Anonymous said...

Digital manipulation. All of Disney's films in 3D, except for animation, are done that way.

And no matter what anyone says, it's not as good as having stereo source material. And they're asking audiences to pay MORE for it.

http://gizmodo.com/5460282/how-regular-movies-are-converted-to-3d

Site Meter