Iger makes a death threat?

[Ghoulish Delight]

I think he's quite astute in that it would drive DVD sales higher and significantly reduce marketing costs. It will reduce cost by consolidating marketing efforts. Right now, they spend millions marketing a movie for the theater release, and then 6, 8, 10 months later have to fire up the marketing again to drive DVD sales. By releasing them simultaneously, the initial marketing blitz serves double duty with little to no extra cost. I think it will increase DVD sales because if the DVD is available during the first big push of hype, people are still excited about it and want it, whereas half a year or more down the line, it's old news. It really does make business sense.

I think it spells death for creativity, however. For a movie to do well in theaters, it has to be good enough to last several weeks, it needs good reviews and good word of mouth. Big opening weekends are a good start, but if a movie sucks, no matter how big the opening weekend, it will often fizzle. But with DVDs, it won't matter as much. Fill the stores with DVDs, hype the movie, DVD sells out day one, movie's made a profit. Who cares if it's good or not, as long as it's got a good pre-release marketing angle? Not good news.