New Film Releases are the order of the day today. Every day there are new films being released in cinemas, as well as issued on physical media. With the TV series revolution, there is hardly an idle minute in Hollywood.
The filming industry has grown in leaps and bounds over the last two centuries. From motion pictures in the late 19th century to studio films, cinemas, to today’s online rental platforms. There were the days when to watch a movie was a consistent deliberate effort. In today’s world obtaining a movie is as easy as clicking your computer mouse, from the comfort of your sofa.
The first home videos systems were available in the ‘70s and ‘80s. Before, new film releases had to be watched in cinemas. You had to wait a long list to obtain a film that had been released more than five months before. All the same in those days you still felt you had to rent the film regardless of how long it took.
The evolution of home video systems brought about the need for movie stores. These would conveniently avail movies to consumers to be able to watch from the comfort of their homes. These were soon replaced by Video chains. Online film rental soon replaced video chains after the decline of brick and mortar stores.
This was at first Netflix’s idea. They would mail films that had been ordered by consumers online. Customers would then mail them back at their convenience. At first it was scoffed by Video chain directors and managers until they observed how quickly it was adopted.
Renting films is also referred to as DVD-by-mail. All contact between the renter and renting company happens via an e-commerce model on the renting company’s website. A customer chooses a subscription plan. They then gain access to the films available on that company’s website and they choose from a list of films.
Most companies prefer for their clients to create wish lists of the films they would love to watch in order of preference. This usually enables a film renting company to know exactly what to mail to their client at a particular time. When the films become available, the company sends them out to their customer who then mails them back to the company when they are finished watching.
Even though the film renting industry has been slowly shifting towards online video streaming, there are advantages that physical media provides and many movie buffs still prefer getting discs in the mail.
The way in which films are released has also undergone an evolution that went hand-in-hand with that of film technology. Film release has undergone five distinct phases. These include the pre-studio era, standard, simultaneous, straight-to-video as well as internet release.
- Pre-studio Era
Before 1915, there two forms of film distribution, States rights, which involved the sale of films on a local, territorial basis.
There were Road Shows where producers made agreements with theatres and made payments were made on the basis of the number of tickets sold.
- Standard Release
This followed a business model in which a movie was first released to movie theatres only. After a period of 16 and a half weeks it was allowed in video shops, then to Pay TV after a few more months. Two years after its theatrical release it was then available for free-to-air TV.
- Straight-to-Video Release
This happens when a film is released directly to Home video formats without considering the theatrical window. It is available in DVD or Blu-Ray formats.
- Simultaneous Release
The name declares this release. A film is released on many media almost at the same time, with little or no difference in the timing.
- Internet Release
Just as the name suggests, in this type of film release, the film is released directly to the internet.
The versatility of the film industry is what makes it alluring. Everyone can find a niche they can identify with, be it drama, fiction, and so on. Film releases are also not just set around specific genres. New films of different kinds are released almost by the hour.
Recently Facebook announced that it wanted to launch its own movie streaming device and this could create a further shift in the industry. Since convenience is king when it comes to the availability of movies, all it takes is a good idea that offers more convenience to upset the current status quo.
Why Rent DVDs in the Digital Age?
There are bonuses and movie director commentaries that come along with a DVD that are not available with digital streaming. The DVD artwork, the inner liner notes, and the extras that come with the physical DVD are usually not available on films streamed. All this does not put into consideration the buffering and pixelating that happens when streaming or downloading content. Although the world has technically moved to digital movies, there is still quite a number of cinephiles who prefer physical media.
There are still DVD postal services that offer discs by post, including the best quality 4K Blu-ray. If that’s what you’ve been looking for, check out Cinema Paradiso and their ever-expanding catalogue of over 95,000 titles.
