Shyamalan Pisses in the Winds of Change

Here’s a gem from the IMDb Studio Briefing. Top director M. Night Shyamalan apparently aired his deathly fear of simultaneous DVD release of first-run movies at a convention, justifying his viewpoint thusly:

“If this thing happens, you know the majority of your theaters are closing. It’s going to crush you guys,” he said. For filmmakers like himself, he suggested, the result would be equally devastating. “When I sit down next to you in a movie theater … we become part of a collective soul,” he said. “That’s the magic in the movies.” He added: “We have been seduced by the DVD and what will sell the DVD. It has been the worst year in cinema for quality.”

I briefly touched on this topic the other day on my way to predicting the demise of broadcast TV. Cinemas don’t have so much to worry about because they offer a qualitatively different experience when compared to DVDs. Of course, M. Night may well be correct in surmising that simultaneous release will lead to lower movie theater receipts, since a certain segment of customers won’t go anymore; namely, the segment who wants to see new releases but would prefer to do so on DVD. So his thesis can essentially be summed up as: “For those of you who don’t agree with my subjective feelings about where movies are best viewed, I’d like to prevent you from having the right to choose. Clearly you don’t know what’s good for you. And failing that, I’ll just stop making movies.”

Hmmm, maybe it’s just me, but if this regressive (not to say repressive) attitude is typical of Hollywood bigwigs, the movie industry may have bigger problems that allowing consumers to view the movies they paid for when and where they want to.

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