Now coming to a theater URL near you, Jackass 2.5 won't have a launch in a theater or be made first for DVD, it will start off as a made-for-Internet offering, available exclusively through Blockbuster.jackassworld.com, starting December 19 through the 31st.
Starting on December 26, you will be able to rent it online or own it on DVD from Blockbuster (BBI) stores, Blockbuster.com, iTunes (AAPL) or Amazon.com (AMZN). Included with the DVD will be behind the scenes takes and footage not seen on the 64-minute film.
I'm not sure the dates of the press release are correct, as who would rent it when you can watch it for free?
Press Release Video
This strategy had to happen, as the demand is definitely there, and the content of this film caters to the buzz marketing that is a strength of the web.
Jackass 2.5 Trailer next page...
The real issue will come from theater owners. With them being cut out of the loop on this, it will be interesting to see what their response will be, as they did pretty good on the first two Jackass films. More importantly, they have to see this as a real threat to their business model in the future; at least for low-budget movies like this.
It seems to me that "Snakes on a Plane" pioneered the way with this. While most thought it was going to be a big hit, in reality it showed that those sharing it by word of mouth, were basically the whole audience for the show in theaters.
What that did was let studios know that there was definitely a fairly large market online for certain types of fare which have the potential to make a good amount of money for them. The marketing costs should also be a lot less, as a niche group of fans around the world will make this a profitable endeavor over a long period of time. Every time one of these types of films are made, it'll make the rounds of a good sized, built-in audience, with not much more marketing work than strategically placed press releases and announcements.
Another important part of this is how the DVD will do after the film is released this way. Will the added content be enough to generate significant revenue? Even now the DVD industry looks like it's at the beginning of a long decline.
Whatever the results of this will be, it had to happen and it needed to be tried. This will be far from the last film we see launched in this way.
Jackass 2.5 Trailer
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