Looks like Steven Spielberg, who apparently used to be a diretor of some note, is no fan of Mark Cuban and Todd Wagner's releasing movies in theaters, on TV and DVD the same day, as they did with Steven Soderbergh's Bubble in January. In the new issue of Time, the maker of Hook and Always is asked his thoughts about the digital revolution, and when it came time to comment on the "shrinking window between the theatrical and DVD release of a movie," this is what he had to say:
"I'm sad because when I first started making movies, when I made Raiders of the Lost Ark, we stayed in theaters for a year. But now you're a hit and it stays in theaters for three months...People are just impatient with the distance between a movie coming to your local theater and the DVD being available at Blockbuster, and Hollywood is listening to that impatience. Although I have to go on record saying that I am not in favor of a DVD coming out the same day as the film opens, because I really believe that the average home system is far inferior to a movie house. And a lot of it is the social magic of going out to the movies, seeing it with a lot of people you have never met and sharing an experience. I feel there is no substitute for going out to the movies. There is nothing like it."
The director, also known for 1941 and Empire of the Sun, went on to say that cell phones are hurting the movie business, iPods are hurting the movie business and laptops are hurting the movie business. He said nothing about View-Masters, slide shows and flip books. --Robert Wilonsky
