Times are changing. It’s just a matter of time before Hollywood’s first blockbuster will have its premiere online and in theatres at the same time. And BitTorrent will probably play a significant role in this “culture shock”.
A great example of a successful BitTorrent release is the movie Star Wreck. This indie movie was released via BitTorrent and became Finland’s most popular movie within just a couple of months, got aired on TV, and had two sold-out screenings at a Norwegian film festival.
The public is ready. Just take a look at popular TV shows like Lost, 24, and Prison Break. These shows are posted on the net immediately after they aired and some of them are downloaded more than 2milion times in a week. TV and Movie companies begin to realize that they’re losing money if they don’t get in now.
Fox and ABC already started to offer TV streams, but that’s clearly not the solution. People demand high quality content, whenever and wherever they want. Moreover, offering streams to millions of people costs a lot of money (bandwidth). The great advantage of BitTorrent and other p2p technologies is that it’s virtually free!.
But, back to the movies. At the Tribeca Film Festival Ashwin Navin of Biottorrent inc. said:
Distribution of film online is coming sooner than you think, and I think that the independent film community is going to lead the way in terms of creating a lot of value for consumers. Today alone some 700,000 peer-to-peer downloads took place over the Internet, many using software like BitTorrent.
Dean Garfield from the MPAA, BitTorrents partner in crime, was also at the festival and stated:
studios aren’t all walking around in the dark bumping heads. People are seriously sitting down trying to think of solutions.
So it wont be long before the first Blockbusters will “legally” debut on BitTorrent. However, movie theatres don’t have to worry according to filmmaker Steven Soderbergh. He probably made the most thoughtful comment:
I don’t think people will stop (going to movie theaters), because its still the primary date destination
