I suggest you strap your hip waders on before reading this:
In a dramatic departure from Hollywood's past distribution practices, the National Lampoon has decided to release a DVD version of National Lampoon's Blackball starring Vince Vaughn, just four days after its U.S. opening on Friday. Reuters reported Wednesday that the producers of the film hope to take advantage of the movie marketing connected with it to drive DVD sales. (Some analysts have suggested that theater chains ought to offer DVDs of the movies they are showing.) Barry Layne, executive vice president of National Lampoon, told Reuters, "The economics of the industry are changing." Giving a boost to producers who have urged the studios to back more movie musicals, the film biography of Ray Charles, Ray, raked in $80 million during its first week on home video -- $6 million more than it has taken in during its entire theatrical run.
Ray is a critically acclaimed Best Picture nominee whose star has won both the Golden Globe and the SAG award for his portrayal of Ray Charles that people want to get a chance to watch before the Oscars. Blackball is only the latest in a series of films (Dorm Daze and Repli-Kate, anyone?) that conclusively demonstrate how far the name National Lampoon has fallen since its 1970s glory days. Besides that, Ray's original theatrical release was in October, three months before the DVD came out. That's significantly longer than four freaking days.
Blackball - a movie that hopes to do for lawn bowling what Dodgeball did for, uh, Rip Torn - was released in the UK way back in 2003 and tanked. National Lampoon knows it's garbage, and so they figured they might as well ship the DVD right after the theatrical opening and be shut of it. If they had any hopes otherwise, it wouldn't be going into limited release and the DVD wouldn't be coming out until everyone who wanted to had a chance to see it multiple times.
It's a different strategy, to be sure, but don't give National Lampoon more credit than it deserves. If Blackball wasn't a piece of shit, this wouldn't be happening.
True, but the point I was making was that NatLamp shouldn't be hailed as maverick pioneers for dumping Blackball so rapidly into the video market. I don't doubt that someday, when movie ticket prices hit $25, they'll be handing out DVDs of the movie you just saw at the theater exits.
Just promise that in 2 years when every movie comes out in theaters and on DVD on the same day, you'll revisit this post. Just 'cause a crappy movie was the first one to do it doesn't mean better ones won't follow.