Hollywood’s screen test

ROBERT IGER, the new chief executive at the Walt Disney Co., uttered something to stock analysts this month that plenty of folks in Hollywood think but never say: He suggested that movie studios release films on DVD at the same time they send them out to theaters. Using the jargon-laden vocabulary of Tinseltown, Iger said, “I don’t think it’s out of the question that a DVD could be released in fact in the same window as a theatrical release.”

The response from movie theaters was two thumbs down, way down. “Mr. Iger knows better than to tell consumers -- or Wall Street analysts -- that they can have it all, everywhere, at the same time,” declared John Fithian, president of the National Assn. of Theatre Owners. “He knows there would be no viable movie theater industry in that new world.”

Fithian’s comments show a stunning lack of faith in the ability of his members to offer a better, more affecting experience than film buffs can have at home. Perhaps he, too, is irritated by the long grind of commercials before the movie starts, or the wallet-thinning price of Sno-Caps and Red Vines. At least those are things that a theater can control.

Disney and the other studios, however, may not be able to justify the current gap between a film’s theatrical “window” and its arrival on DVD -- at least not for long. Today, a studio will typically spend tens of millions of dollars to whip up demand for a new film. And then, for the next several months, it provides no legitimate way to view that film at home.

That approach may be great for the theaters, but it delays a host of potential revenue streams for the studios. Imagine buying a ticket to a film online, going to the theater, then returning home to find an e-mail message inviting you to purchase a digital copy of the movie that has already been sent to your computer.

Such a scenario is technologically possible, but the studios are reluctant to make it reality for fear of offending theater owners. In addition, the studios’ policies create an artificial scarcity that invites people to find something else to do with their entertainment dollar -- buy video games, for example, or download bootlegged versions of the DVDs the studios are holding back. As the music industry has shown, offering a legitimate alternative is a critical component of the battle against online piracy.

Technology has already transformed the way movies are made. Now it is changing how they are delivered and seen. Both the studios and the theaters should worry less about preserving their business models and more about giving the public a show they’re eager to pay for.