Hollywood At Home

Will Making Films Instantly Available At Home Mean The Extinction Of Theaters?

(CBS)  Time was, the only way to see a movie was at the movie theater. Then came television and home video and personal DVD players.

But even then, new movies — the good ones, anyway — came first to the theater. That may be changing, reports CBS News correspondent Jerry Bowen.

You wouldn't think a movie premier in tiny Parkersburg, W. Va. could scare Hollywood.

But when Oscar-winning director Steven Soderbergh screened "Bubble" for the townspeople who starred in it, some movie makers saw it as a real horror show.

That's because when "Bubble" opens this week, Soderbergh will release it not only in theaters, but on cable TV and DVD all within days.

"This is a genie that I think you can't put back in the bottle," Soderbergh says. "The technology is available and the consumer, you know, is the one who is driving this."

It's a radical reversal of the current system where it now takes a month or more before movies show up on pay-per-view, DVD and finally cable.

It's a Web-based future envisioned by actor Morgan Freeman and Intel, backed by some A-list stars — movie downloads shortly after they open in theaters.

"Anyone anywhere in the world who has the service will have front row seats right in the comfort of their own home. Think about that." Freeman says.

Music producer Jake Hooker has thought about it. He has a huge appetite for movies, three to four per week, just not in movie theaters.

"I've been not liking going to the movie theaters for years because they're dirty, noisy, people talking, chewing, eating," he says.

Hooker says the nearly same-day release of movies will make his 82-inch home theater complete.

"I think once you get hooked on the home theater experience, it's like never gonna go back to the movies like you used to no matter what happens," Hooker says.

The movie studios and theaters owners have also thought about it – and they see a world of empty seats and lost revenue if the practice of simultaneous release catches on. One critic says it could mean the extinction of an American tradition — a night out at the movies.

Writer-director M. Night Shyamalan told an exhibitors' convention that the plan will kill the cinema, sacrificing a cultural outing to make a buck.

"If this goes through, you know the majority of the theaters are closing, right?" he said. "The ideal forum of this movie, this art form, is the movie theater. That's it. They try to convince us otherwise, they're lying."

Soderbergh says that is nonsense.

"Take-out food didn't destroy the restaurant business and I don't think this is going to destroy the theater-going business either," he says.

Tell that to the big studios and theater chains already reeling from three years of slumping attendance. They like making money the old fashioned way and are hoping that Soderbergh's idea is one bubble that bursts.