Mark Cuban, who is always referred to as the billionaire [apparently he doesn’t have value as a human being outside of his money to the editors of every major publication], is in charge of several media production companies. He has been pushing to get movies out on DVD at the same time they’re put on the silver screens so as to reduce piracy. The theory (that I agree with) is that if you release things to the masses in multiple formats they are less likely to steal the content from somewhere else. Wired magazine interviewed an opponent of this idea, the CEO of AMC movie theaters. In short it is the silliest defense of ‘the old way’ I’ve read yet. Sure, its possible that Wired edited the guy to look like a moron, but if you look at the text its clear that something is not right about this guy’s logic.
First he’s saying that the theaters only want to carry the best products, by which he means movies, and that Mark Cuban’s company’s movie wasn’t quality enough for his theaters. Then he’s saying that ticket sales were down last year because the quality of the movies were down. But then he sites that the quality of the movies were derided by reviewers. Does he know why there are movie reviewers out there? Because there are so many movies released that the masses have to get help to know which ones might be worth their time. If fewer movies were released, but had quality behind them, then I think folks would be inclined to go see them and reviewers would review them well because they were quality movies. You can’t seriously tell me that a movie theater that played “Kung Pow: Enter the Fist!” has discernment to say no to ‘Bubble’, Cuban’s movie [let it be known I own Kung Pow, but I consider it to be a goofy movie that few would enjoy unless theyr’e goofy like me].
In short its a political move but he’s dancing around like Mike Tyson before he bites your ear. Or in this case, your pocketbook.