MovieMobz – allowing audiences to program cinemas
MovieMobz is a Brazilian iniative that allows film fans from the Moviemobz social network to choose the films they want to see by clicking an “I Want To See It” button. If enough people select a certain film (both classics and new releases are on offer) then it is programmed and they are emailed about the screening. About 2.5 people attend for every member who’s voted.
As Arin Crumley remarks, this is similar to the Four Eyed Monsters heart map. Except this is being masterminded by MovieMobz’s owner, Rain Network, Latin America’s biggest digital cinema operator – rather than by the filmmakers (which is refreshing as it can sometimes feel rather irksome when EVERY new truly-independent distribution strategy seems to fall on the filmmakers’ broke and exhausted shoulders). As we debate how theatrical release strategies for independent films need to change in today’s glutted marketplace this is a model we should all be paying close attention to.
Arin Crumley November 1st, 2008 at 9:06 pm
I definitely agree it’s far better for the theater to do this task rather then the filmmaker have to do what we did which was collect zip codes and then contact the theater, book it, get the DVD to them to screen it and in some cases even have to rent out the theater. What would have been much better would be to be in a world where you just put the HD version of your film onto a server and allow theaters to pull it to them if they see there is a local demand for a screening. Then if the film is catching on through word of mouth screenings would start popping up all over the world and that would cause revenue from the filmmaker. The next step of the evolution of this model is for a third party company to prove this model in the US and right now MovieMobz isn’t in the US yet, so it’s wide open for another company to come swooping through. That being said, I had some cool conversations with Fabio at Power to the Pixel and they are very excited about the proposition of bringing it to the US and I think they have a good shot at making it work.
Arin Crumley
Four Eyed Monsters
From Here to Awesome