So Phillip Ridley’s new film Heartless (released Friday 21st May) staring my personal new favourite (along with Son Kang-ho) Eddie Marsan, was released in cinemas but it will also be coming out on DVD on Monday.
When I heard this I was fascinated because I have never seen anything like this (not that it hasn’t happened already). Why I think this is so interesting for several reasons but to explain I’ll start from the beginning.
I was catching by with the BBC Radio 5 Live Film Review with the good Dr and Simon Mayo and they had Phillip Ridley in to interview him about his new horror/thriller (now you can see why I was listening) but my ears really pricked up when I heard that the film was being release within a week on one another.
I began to question where this was a good idea or a really bad one. And ten minutes last I decided it was.
Whilst listening to the interview I searched the web to try find where the movie was and hopefully still is playing but with no luck. This is either because I wasn’t looking hard enough or because the distribution hasn’t given it a wide release. However because of this I only need wait a couple of days and I could watch it at home. Free from those cursed adverts!
This to me sounds like a good idea because how many people have seen a movie at your local art house cinema, walked out and said “I’m buying that on DVD”. If I walked out of The Disappearance of Alice Creed and had the choice to buy it, I definitely would. Not that DVD sales are bad because they do better the cinema sales however would it increase because of this?
However I see why they didn’t do it with films such as Avatar. The distributors of the DVD’s wait six months for people pre order and go crazy waiting for the films.
I think I’m going to be getting Heartless on DVD but I would still love to see it in a cinema. I’ve seen Evil Dead 2 a dozen times but I would still see it in the cinema. But is it a good thing that the DVD comes out at the same time of the cinematic release? Will it hurt the cinema ticket sales? What do you think?
