It might be hard to believe, but there exist several grouchy people in the world not completely thrilled by the prospect of G.I. Joe: Rise of the Cobra’s upcoming DVD release on November 3. The Hollywood Reporter says multiplex owners are outraged over Paramount’s plans to offer classics Joe and Jeremy Piven’s The Goods: Live Hard, Sell Hard (due November 10) on plastic discs a scant 88 days after their theatrical premieres.
“Our members are ballistic,” says National Association of Theatre Owners prez John Fithian, presumably while twisting his mustache. “We don’t know what Paramount is up to, but it’s highly objectionable.” The current average window between a movie’s theatrical and home-video releases is 129 days, but NATO is worried Paramount’s move could inspire other studios to move up their DVD releases as well, thus reducing audiences’ urgency to drop $50, battle traffic, wait in line, sit through an hour’s worth of commercials, be made motion-sick by 3-D glasses, and spend 120 minutes sharing recirculated air with a theater full of swine-flu sufferers during the first weekend of a film’s release. We suppose their concerns may not be invalid.
