Sorry, Dredd 3D probably still not getting a theatrical sequel.

One of the bigger pieces of news in the film blogsphere was the relatively high sales figures for the debut of Dredd 3D in its first week of its various home viewing platforms.  A press release put out by Lionsgate states that Dredd sold 650,000 DVDs and Blu Rays in its first week as well as leading in digital purchases/downloads as well.  This is of course good news for those involved in the picture, which earned just $36 million worldwide on an alleged $50 million budget, but it doesn't mean that the franchise is now magically alive-and-well.  The news has had pretty much every movie blogger screaming that we may now get that theatrical sequel after all!  Sorry folks, it ain't gonna happen.  

2012 in film: Pre-Theatrical VOD goes mainstream...

This will be the first in a series of essays detailing 'the year in film', spotlighting certain trends (mostly positive, I'm taking a break from complaining for a bit) of the nearly finished year.  Obviously I can't amass a best-of list until I see a few more alleged gems, mainly Les Miserables and Django Unchained, but I can start a retrospective of the movie year that was 2012.   

Normally when a film opens with $3,181 on three screens it's considered a pretty big flop.  Yet this past weekend saw the theatrical release of the surprisingly very good Universal Soldier: Day of Reckoning, which marked the proverbial end of a seemingly successful run on pre-theatrical video on demand.  I say 'seemingly' because studios aren't yet releasing the proverbial grosses of films on this format, even ones that debut on VOD prior to theatrical release (Bachelorette made news as the top iTunes download on its opening week, but we have yet to know how much money that is).  It's release followed on the heels of Barry Levinson's The Bay, which is quite frankly the scariest American horror film I have seen since Frank Darabont's The Mist.  It opened in theaters and VOD on the same day and earned a whopping $30,000 during a two-week theatrical run.  Following the somewhat surprising VOD performance of Margin Call, which debuted day-and-date in theaters and VOD and rang up decent numbers on both formats (the $3.5 million picture earned $16 million worldwide in theaters), 2012 has seen an explosion of pre-theatrical and/or day-and-date theatrical/VOD content like never before. The sheer amount of content, relatively high-quality content, available on VOD amounts to a second film release schedule.

Universal to offer Tower Heist on Video On Demand 3 weeks after theatrical debut.

It could be a game-changer or could just be an irrelevant blip (it's so hard to tell sometimes).  The Los Angeles Times is reporting that Universal has announced a (very) limited test run with offering premium-priced Video On Demand for Brett Ratner's all-star caper comedy Tower Heist (trailer) just three weeks after the film's November 4th theatrical debut.  Long-story short, if you live in Atlanta or Portland and get your cable TV via Comcast (which now of course owns Universal), you will have the option of purchasing a (I presume) one-time viewing of the Ben Stiller/Eddie Murphy film for 'just' $59.99 just three weeks after the theatrical opening weekend (which I presume means the start of its fourth weekend in theaters).  Other online or cable companies will allegedly have the option to offer this same service at the same time, but we'll see if anyone else bites.  The price point is obviously intended to appeal for larger families or large groups of friends who don't have to see the newest releases right away, but don't want to wait until DVD and the other various home-video platforms.

The Shot Heard Round the Industry... Studios announce pre-DVD Video on Demand for major theatrical releases, and why it's doomed..

Fox, Warner Bros, Sony, and Universal have announced today that they will begin offering 'first-run' theatrical features on Video On Demand through DirectTV just sixty days after their theatrical release. Other outlets, such as Comcast and Vudo, will eventually join the fray in a limited capacity, but for now the first shot has been fired. Ironically, the two studios which will likely have the heartiest summer, Disney and Paramount, have for the moment abstained. Disney has Cars 2 and Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides just at the start of the summer. Paramount has an uber-strong slate the entire season, with Thor, Kung Fu Panda 2, Super 8, Transformers: Dark Side of the Moon, and Captain America. Point being, they'll be counting money from May to August, so there really was no incentive to piss off the exhibitors. And the theater chains are indeed mighty pissed.

Review: Rubber (2011)

Rubber
2011
83 minutes
rated R

by Scott Mendelson

Yes yes, we get it. Movies aren't real and it is foolish to become emotionally invested in fictional events where there are no real rules. That was one of the many subtexts found in Chris Nolan's Inception, but here it is front-and-center as text. Those expecting a goofy horror film about a killer tire are in for a disappointment. In actuality, writer/director Quentin Dupieux uses this outlandish premise to comment on the seemingly passive nature of (American?) film audiences to willfully accept outlandish scenarios and arbitrary silliness while questioning the very nature of our active involvement in fictional worlds. It's all quite smart and clever, but did it have to be so bloody boring as well?

Review: Black Death (2011)

Black Death
2011
103 minutes
rated R

by Scott Mendelson

Christopher Smith's Black Death is a thoughtful and engaging film that isn't quite as traumatic as it wants to be. As an examination of faith in an era where there is no plausible hope, it portends to examine the dangers of fundamentalism in all cloths. That it doesn't quite reach the grand heights to which it attempts is only a token disappointment. It may not have anything groundbreaking to say, but it remains a creepy and occasionally disconcerting period piece. And it establishes Christopher Smith as a genuine talent coming off the prior triumphs of Severance and the genuinely terrific Triangle.

How Kevin Smith's Red State could have been the new face of Video On Demand.

There are people with stronger feelings one way or another about Kevin Smith than I. I loved Clerks II and Dogma, hated Jay and Silent Bob Strike Back, liked Clerks and Chasing Amy, and I have yet to see Mallrats, Zack and Miri Make A Porno, Jersey Girl or Cop Out. So I'm not going to get terribly worked up over the hurt feelings allegedly inspired by Smith's decision to distribute Red State in the classic Road Show style (sometimes called 'four-walling'), taking the film around the country as if it were a traveling circus attraction. It would seem that Smith is, if anything, guilty of announcing a perfectly-okay personal choice in a manner that put him in a most negative light. Similar to James's press-conference last summer, Smith basically failed at that whole 'tact' thing. James had every right to leave the Cleveland Cavaliers after seven years, but the self-aggrandizing press-conference probably wasn't the best way to go about it. Same thing here: if Smith wanted to turn his film into some kind of sideshow exhibit, then more power to him. But perhaps the Sundance Film Festival wasn't the best place to criticize the various means of distribution for smaller films (while showing a token amount of ignorance about how smaller films are marketed), especially after (allegedly) implying that the film was going to be put up for sale following the first screening last night. More importantly, even if much of the fanboy criticism of Smith was truly overblown, Kevin Smith doesn't realize that he missed out on the chance to truly be a pioneer.