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