Death of Cinema?

Today it emerged that the Odeon Cinema chain will not be showing Tim Burton's newest release Alice in Wonderland in its cinemas.

The dispute is based around the fact that Disney (Wonderland's distribution company) want to reduce the films run in cinemas from the standard 17 weeks to a shorter 12 week window, in order for the DVD to be released sooner.

Disney say this process will help to cut down piracy, by bringing the film to customers more quickly. This decision has ramifications not just for this film, but the entire film industry and the cinema as a viable format.

Newer technologies like DVD have already posed threats to cinema as a medium. Despite the uptake of new technology and increase of piracy, the year 2009 was still the most successful year for the big screen. Clearly it still has its attractions.

It is clear that even though other formats are available, people are still willing to go out and pay for the big screen experience. Alice in Wonderland is a 3D film, and clearly the best way to view this film is on the big screen, you simply cannot get the same experience by watching it at home. So the question has to be raised as to why Disney want this particular film to have a shorter window, as it has a huge pull to the big screen. Shortening its window, means less people will get to have this experience, especially in smaller cinemas.

The Odeon chain owns two-thirds of all the screens in the UK so this dispute is going to be damaging for this film, as less people will be able to see it. Ultimately, more people will be turning away from the big screen and towards other mediums, which is a crying shame, because films like this need to be shown on the big screen.

There is nothing like seeing a film for the first time in the cinema, and this dispute poses questions over the viability and the future of the cinema industry.