Night rises to Fight

Director M. Night Shyamalan threw down the gauntlet Thursday night at ShowEast, appearing at the exhibitors convention to speak out against shrinking theatrical windows and rejecting the notion of simultaneous day-and-date releases of new films in theaters and on home video, cable and video-on-demand.

In an interview before his speech, Shyamalan said he planned to ask theater owners at ShowEast’s Final Night Banquet and Award Ceremony “for zero tolerance on this — to say, ‘If you’re gonna release a movie in another medium, then you’re not going to get into our theaters’ –because at the end of the day, they hold all the cards.” Speaking from his Philadelphia-area office shortly before leaving for Orlando, the director said: “I’m going to stop making movies if they end the cinema experience. If there’s a last film that’s released only theatrically,it’ll have my name on it. This is life or death to me.(Gregg Goldstein)

Hollywood Reporter

Candidly calling the collapse of traditional distribution windows “the worst idea I have ever heard,” writer-helmer M. Night Shyamalan istaking a public stand urging exhibs and studios to keep the theatrical window intact.

Variety

11 Comments

  1. Shyamalan is right on! I rent movies, download movies, and go to movies. When a movie is really good, I want to see it in the theater. I don't love paying $10 (Boston) for a flick so I only go when the movie needs the theater experience but if the film is released on DVD and cable at the same time, it will simply disapear from the theater sooner. It won't be long before everything is direct to DVD. The quality of films will go down while profits go up. These movie companies are in the business of making money. Shyamalan is in the business of making stories that I want to see. He is right and the accountants are, as always, wrong. Instead of investing in your home theater, take your kids out to a movie. They'll enjoy it more and so will you!

  2. I was at ShowEast and have to say M Night's speech was inspiring. Movie theatres, and the movie-going experience, are getting such a bad rap these days! But it's not the experience that is worsening, it's the movies! The whole point of M Night's speech was that you cannot beat the “movie-going experience.” It doesn't matter how big your TV screen is, or how great your surround sound is… Think about when you went to a highly-anticipated movie on opening night. One of the reasons you enjoyed it was that you were surrounded by people just like you, there for the same reason. It's that camaraderie that people crave, and that is why I think (and hope) the theatres will never die. So do what M Night says, go to the movies! You won't regret it.

  3. Ok ok simmer down guys…theres certainly enough hero for all of us, i call first dibs on 75% of it tho..jk…but seriously…dibs

  4. go on night; we will always support u we love you,please don't abandon us,please go on makin'movies,everybody needs your movies :crying:

  5. 🙂 M. Night, please don't stop making movies. Your movies are my inspiration. Your movies rock!!!

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