Today, the bulk of the material shown before the feature film consists of previews for upcoming movies (also known as trailers) and paid advertisements.
[6] Recording technology has since enabled consumers to rent or buy copies of films on home media such as VHS or DVD (older formats include: laserdisc, VCD, SelectaVision and videodisc).
Prior to the decline of the Motion Picture Patents Company (Edison Trust) in 1915, there were two main forms of film distribution: states rights and roadshow.
Film copyright holders would sell rights of a movie directly to the theater or franchise salesperson,[8] typically on a foot-by-foot basis for 10 cents a foot.
[15] Cinema owners can be affected if they have to share their opportunity window, especially at the beginning of the movie lifecycle, since, according to Disney, about 95% of all box office tickets for a film are sold within the first six weeks after initial distribution.
[16] Among relevant simultaneous release attempts are Bubble (2006) by Academy Award-winning director Steven Soderbergh, EMR (2005) by James Erskine & Danny McCullough, and The Road to Guantanamo (2006).
[19] By 1983 in the United States, the theatrical window before a film would be made available to other media, (at the time, firstly cable or pay TV) was around a year.
[22] Major movie studios reportedly pushed to shrink the theatrical window in an attempt to make up for the substantial losses in the DVD market suffered since the 2004 sales peak.
These attempts have encountered the firm opposition of theater owners, whose profits depend solely upon attendance and therefore benefit from keeping a movie available on their screens.
[10][23] In early 2010, Disney announced it would be putting out the DVD and Blu-ray versions of Tim Burton's Alice in Wonderland 14 weeks after the movie's release date (instead of the then usual 17) in order to avoid competition from the 2010 World Cup.
Most major studios have considered making movies available to VOD services shortly after their theatrical release for a premium price.
[23] In July 2010 Netflix secured a deal with Relativity Media in which the latter agreed to distribute a number of major movies to the aforementioned VOD service before Pay TV.
[citation needed] After Netflix bought the worldwide distribution rights to Beasts of No Nation, the film was simultaneously released theatrically and online through its subscription video-on-demand (SVOD) service on October 16, 2015.
[28] In late 2018, five of the major Hollywood studios, including Universal and Warner Bros., identified that they were working on an agreement that would see certain movies receive a premium video-on-demand release within weeks of their theatrical premieres.
[32][33] Sonic the Hedgehog, I Still Believe, and The Invisible Man also became available for in-home on-demand viewing after a theatrical run shorter than usual in the wake of widespread theatre closures.
As a result of strong DVD sales, straight-to-video releases achieved higher success and were noted in 2005 to have become a profitable market,[41][42] especially for independent filmmakers and distributors.
[43] Feature films released directly to YouTube or other streaming platforms include: Zeitgeist: The Movie (2007), The Cult of Sincerity (2008), Home (2009), Life in a Day (2011) and Eyes and Ears of God: Video Surveillance of Sudan (2012).