Which way to watch? Choose

Some movie fans love the thrill of seeing a new film in a crowded multiplex. Others prefer to watch movies in the privacy of their own homes. Steven Soderbergh fans will soon be able to see the director’s work either way -- on the very same day.

The Oscar-winning filmmaker said Thursday that he is partnering with 2929 Entertainment to direct half a dozen high-definition digital movies, with the aim of releasing all simultaneously in theaters, on DVD and on pay cable and satellite television. Soderbergh already is in production in Ohio on the first of the six planned films -- “Bubble,” a murder mystery that could debut on the three competing platforms as early as this fall.

“I’m sure some people will say, ‘Why do this?’ And my response is, ‘Why wouldn’t you?’ ” the “Ocean’s Eleven” director said. “In the next five years, you are going to see some significant paradigm shifts in the entertainment business.”

Those shifts may create some problems: major theater chains might not want to exhibit Soderbergh’s films, and the simultaneous release may make the films ineligible for Academy Awards.

Soderbergh’s six movies will be produced by 2929 Entertainment, owned by entrepreneurs Mark Cuban and Todd Wagner. They own Landmark Theatres, movie distributor Magnolia Pictures and pay television channel HDNet Movies. Wagner said the company is also working to secure a DVD distribution deal for the Soderbergh movies, which will cost less than $2 million apiece.

“We are trying to find new ways of getting content out there and increase revenues,” Wagner said. “If I hear a song I like on the radio, I don’t have to wait three months to buy it on CD. We are letting the consumer decide how they are going to consume [movies].”

Hollywood has shown little interest in diverging from its current distribution model: Films first open in theaters, land in video stores several months later, and finally appear months after that on pay and then free television. In Wagner’s mind, that schedule makes little sense, as it requires separate (and increasingly costly) advertising campaigns for each medium.

The time period between a movie’s theatrical release and its DVD debut has been rapidly shrinking. Last year, a film’s DVD came out on average four months and 16 days after its theatrical release, down from six months and 12 days in 1994, according to the National Assn. of Theater Owners. Some movies now go on sale at Wal-Mart and other mass merchants less than two months after their theatrical premiere.

“Just look at the trajectory,” Soderbergh said. “Mark and Todd are convinced that day-and-date was the way things were going to go.”

The trend is worrisome to multiplex operators, who fear their patrons will stop buying theater tickets and purchase a film’s DVD instead.

Wagner admitted he faced an uncertain future securing theater chains other than Landmark, which has just 59 theaters, to show Soderbergh’s movies. But he hoped the larger chains could be enticed by offers to share in the films’ overall profits.

“If some of these movies are successful, it will be hard for you to say you don’t want to play them in your theaters,” Wagner said. “And when it’s Steven Soderbergh, it’s hard for people to say we can’t get A-list people to buy into what we’re doing.”

Some theater chains want only movies that are not available elsewhere. Regal Entertainment Group, the nation’s largest movie chain with more than 6,200 screens, has refused to book “Enron: The Smartest Guys in the Room,” a new documentary from Cuban and Wagner. The reason? The film, which Cuban and Wagner’s Magnolia is distributing, debuted last weekend in theaters and on the pay channel HDNet Movies.

“They are very rigid,” Eamonn Bowles of Magnolia Pictures said of Regal. “Regal will not play it, but a number of chains will.” Bowles said Mann and Laemmle theaters, among others, would be showing “Enron” this weekend.

“It has been our policy that we do not exhibit films that are simultaneously being released on DVD, video or pay television,” said Regal spokesman Dick Westerling. “And we do not anticipate changing that policy.”

Some producers have had spotty results releasing movies theatrically and on home video at the same time. Last December, the Susan Sarandon- Penelope Cruz Christmas story “Noel” debuted simultaneously in theaters and on DVD. Its box-office returns were negligible, and “Noel’s” current sales ranking at Amazon, which held the exclusive DVD rights, is No. 7,230.

The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences said Thursday that its rules do not anticipate how to treat a simultaneous release. The second rule for Oscar consideration says a film is ineligible for awards consideration if its first public exhibition is not as a theatrical motion picture release. The academy said its rules committee will address the topic in its upcoming summer meeting.

Soderbergh, who won the best director Oscar for “Traffic,” says he isn’t concerned. What’s most important, he says, is that he has the freedom not only to test a new release strategy but also to experiment with innovative storytelling techniques.

The $1.7-million “Bubble,” for example, stars only non-actors and will be shot in just 18 days. It was written by Coleman Hough.

“I like to go off and do things that don’t really fit into traditional categories,” said Soderbergh, who made the 2002 movie “Full Frontal,” also written by Hough, with digital cameras and an accelerated production schedule, and cast 2003’s short-lived HBO “K Street” with both actors and politicians.

“Economically, the film business in general is using a model that is outdated and, worse than that, inefficient,” the director said. “It’s worth finding out if this [new release strategy] is going to work better for audiences.”