Cinema’s day-and-date with destiny

About a month ago, Beasts of No Nation , a war drama starring Idris Elba, was released to critical appreciation. But it also made news for an unusual reason: its distribution model. The film had what is called a ‘day-and-date release’, a simultaneous theatrical and online release. In addition to theatres, Beasts… premiered on Netflix, an Internet streaming, video-on-demand service. Theatres were unhappy. In fact, four of the United States’ (U.S.) largest theatre chains staged a boycott of the film.

D&D release, long popular with independent (indie) movies, had never been attempted by a mainstream flick. The audience, though, gave a resounding thumbs up. Beasts… had a decent box-office run, besides clocking 3 million streaming views within 10 days of release. One swallow may not make a summer, but there’s more: Amazon has acquired rights for same-day streaming release of Drive -director Nicolas Refn’s upcoming flick starring Keanu Reeves. The revolution might be at hand sooner than we expect.

Historically, a movie was first shown in big-city theatres (‘A’ centres), and then shifted to smaller towns and villages (‘B’ and ‘C’ centres) until it did the whole circuit. The first ‘threat’ to this idyllic pattern came in the form of television. It was predicted that families would opt to stay at home; that theatres would close and cinema would die. None of that happened. When VCR, cable TV and DVD arrived, similar panic attacks happened. But each technology was assimilated into the distribution network, creating additional revenue streams like satellite and digital rights.

The latest disruption is more complex. The Internet’s exponential growth coupled with the boom in screening devices means that cinema is easily accessible, pirated or otherwise. No one is quite sure how to tame this beast.

In India, there is a compelling case for same-date digital distribution to be viewed as an opportunity, not a threat. This is because Indians make and view films a bit differently from the rest of the world.

Despite being one of the biggest film producers in the world, India’s movie screen density is low. The U.S. has 125 screens per million people; India has barely 15. The gap between demand and supply is filled, in most cases, by piracy. For a developing nation, building cinema halls in every nook is unviable. Therefore creating legitimate digital channels is the best way to increase reach and revenue for makers and ensure an easy, quality-viewing experience.

Secondly, India has multiple industries with different linguistic and cinematic languages. Smaller industries are abuzz with talent, but have market limitations. Simultaneous digital distribution can help tap the diaspora, a huge auxiliary market for every Indian language-group.

Chandan Arora’s Striker (2010) attempted an interesting strategy. Lead actor Siddharth, though unknown in Hindi, was an established star down South. Striker was released in northern theatres and on YouTube overseas, tapping into the actor’s expat fan base. Reportedly, the online revenue overshot theatre collections.

Kamal Haasan wanted to offer Vishwaroopam (2012) on pay-per-view option across DTH networks on its release date. The idea was to reach different audience segments in Tamil Nadu, since only three percent of the state used DTH. Distributors and theatre-owners, however, disapproved vociferously. Finally, digital/online release will, in all likelihood, only remain a faithful side-kick to theatrical distribution. Theatre-goers in India are reluctant to compromise on the complete movie-watching experience. Also, film viewing is inherently a social activity here – an outing with family or a night-out with friends. With the recent multiplex boom, family audiences are back with a bang. Single-screens on the verge of closure are being spruced up and re-opened. Theatres converted to marriage halls are now being reconverted. In this context, digital release will create new markets rather than cannibalise existing ones.

Indian theatre chains are also getting into the act. PVR’s Director’s Rare wing is dedicated to the distribution of indie and regional films. Lucia (2013) was distributed in this manner, becoming the first Kannada feature to have a country-wide release. The eternal challenge of commercial filmmaking is to find the widest audience, without leakage of revenue. India is probably closer to cracking this riddle than anyone else.

Meanwhile, in Kerala...

Wide release is the simultaneous release of movies in A, B and C centres. This has been acknowledged across the world as a good strategy to counter piracy. In Kerala though, distributors and exhibitors are still at loggerheads over this. Theatre shutdowns and brinksmanship were in evidence this year too, around the release of Baahubali . As piracy continues to eat into revenue, some filmmakers have decided to try out online release for size. Jayaraj’s acclaimed Ottal , for instance, had a day-and-date release: it was released online for overseas viewers the same day as its theatrical release in Kerala.