I noticed as I was perusing the feeds this morning that the film “Easy A” is now available on Netflix, and DVD in general: Netflix: Easy A. This film was released in theaters on 9/17 and to DVD on 12/21.
Now, this is not a film that I’m particularly interested in, though it does seem to have reasonably good reviews. The reason it caught my eye is that I recalled seeing the same film on the schedule of our local discount theater. It is still showing there right now (well, at 7:10 tonight). I see a lot of movies at that theater. It’s $2, and not up-to-date, but for a lot of movies it’s just fine, and makes for an inexpensive night out.
So, what has me troubled is that we now have the DVD release of a relatively well reviewed film being rushed so much that it’s going to squeeze out these discount theaters. There have always been straight to DVD releases, and DVD release schedules have been compressing, but there has always been enough “first run” content with enough of a gap to keep the discount theaters stoked with content a few weeks behind the multiplex.
Not sure if this is going to be the new normal or this is just an isolated case, but I hope things balance out in a way that preserves a place for the “cinema poco costoso” (blame Google translate if that’s horribly wrong)
