In an interesting way to see how the distribution of films has changed in the last few year, the film Vanishing on 7th Street is currently available on Video on Demand (VOD). Vanishing, a film starring Hayden Christensen (Jumper, Star Wars: Episode II and III) and Thandie Newton (Mission Impossible 2, Crash), is a horror, thriller about mysterious black out in Detroit where after the lights come back on most of the people have vanished into thin air. The film does not appear to be distributed through any of the major 6 studios but has an estimated budget of $10 million according to the International Movie Database (imdb).
This is a risky bet to put the film on the internet before it's release on February 18 into theaters. One of the risks that the film will face is the very common internet pirates that will copy the film and put out on the net for others to watch for free. In this day and age you know that there is some one that has probably created software to pull movies from VOD sources. Beyond internet piracy there is also the fact that you can loose out on ticket sales prices per person. At $9.99 per view some one can have a party or just bring a lot of friends together for a viewing and the distributors are loosing around $10 a head per viewer. Finally there is the number of reviews that get out before the film's theatrical release which can be bad as well as good. Of course before any film is released into theaters there are reviews done by the press that anyone can read but some rely more on the opinions of their peers than the critics. If the film this not perceived well then others that could have been interested in seeing it in the theater may be turned off by reviews. Then again if there are a lot of good reviews people may be more eager to see the film in the theaters. Along with the sway of the public the reviews could also possibly influence filmmakers to make last minute changes to the film since editing is easier to adjust now than before.
In the end only the opening box office of this film will tell what the VOD has done to the demand of the film in theaters.
