World Premiere of WOTW @ the Jaffe Residence - you're all invited

Not really, but it could happen (not the everyone invited part)

Scott Donaton commented on a New York Times article which reflects that consumers are staying home and watching DVD's (and other things) instead of waiting in line to see overpriced movies, eating overpriced popcorn and soda and let's not forget the other charges such as parking and babysitter fees, not to mention sitting in the first row because you didn't come at least an hour before. Sheesh

P.S. Scott: I wrote about this over a year ago and it's in my book, so quit dogging the NYTimes. I could say the same about you :)

Donaton's entire thesis seems to be based on one college kid's statement about preferring to read a book, surf the net or watch tv compared to going to a movie: “I want to do things that conform to my time frame, not someone else’s.”

He also cites an effort from Mark Cuban and Steven Soderbergh to simultaneously release films in theaters, on DVD and pay TV.

Bottom line is that the movie biz is going to have to work a little harder to tangibly demonstrate value to the consumer. There are many theatres that have delved into experential marketing with concierge and valet services, premium seats in the form of loungers and sofas, bar and waiter service. This is all a good start...not that scaleable but certainly worthy of commanding a premium price, or at the very minimum justifying the "price of entry"

Another d'uh obvious move (and coming from South Africa where this is the absolute norm, I'm still stunned that this hasn't happened sooner) is to aggressively roll out reserved seating. I know there's consumer resistance and I know that it will take a long time to change a deep seated (pun not intended) cultural inertia, BUT now is the time to do it - specifically becuase of the Internet.

C'mon, if you can use the Web to pick your airline seats....fill in the blank.

What this move would need is a plain and simple educational program and dare I say it, advertising, to preach to the choral masses.

I could go on all day about ways of fixing the movie model...for example, why not introduce different sound tracks such as language cuts or director's commentary, which you could use your iPod to tune into?

Thoughts?