It hasn’t been decades. Maybe 15 years, though. It’s coincided with the ubiquity of streaming.
Before Netflix was everywhere, a movie could bomb in theaters and still make up the difference on the back end. Kevin Smith’s Clerks and Mallrats are great examples of movies that absolutely cleaned up on DVD sales. Comedy Central using advertising money and licensing Office Space for 20 hours per week is part of why the producers trusted Mike Judge enough to make Idiocracy.
But steamers don’t pay nearly as well as direct-to-consumer home video or as well as advertising-supported licenses. So producers are disincenrivized to do mid-budget movies or take chances on new IPs, because if it doesn’t do well in theaters then they’re not making the money back.
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But this has been the case for decades.
It hasn’t been decades. Maybe 15 years, though. It’s coincided with the ubiquity of streaming.
Before Netflix was everywhere, a movie could bomb in theaters and still make up the difference on the back end. Kevin Smith’s Clerks and Mallrats are great examples of movies that absolutely cleaned up on DVD sales. Comedy Central using advertising money and licensing Office Space for 20 hours per week is part of why the producers trusted Mike Judge enough to make Idiocracy.
But steamers don’t pay nearly as well as direct-to-consumer home video or as well as advertising-supported licenses. So producers are disincenrivized to do mid-budget movies or take chances on new IPs, because if it doesn’t do well in theaters then they’re not making the money back.