Coming to a theater, TV or computer near you ...

Gaining traction

Once nearly unthinkable to cineastes, watching features streamed to personal computers is gaining traction. A growing number of major filmmakers are allowing their work to premiere on video on demand (VOD). The debut offering of Sundance Selects, a documentary-and-world-cinema VOD service, is Spike Lee's "Passing Strange: The Movie," presenting the musical that premiered at Berkeley Repertory Theatre.

Day and date

Companies such as Magnolia Pictures and IFC Entertainment (both available locally on Comcast) have sacrificed cows as sacred as release windows, which is the time between a film's theatrical run and its premiere on VOD or DVD. IFC offers many films "day and date" - that is, the day they are released in cinemas, they are also available to homes via pay-per-view. Magnolia offers some on VOD before their theatrical runs.

"It's a model we developed because we were having, quite frankly, a tough go of it economically," says Jonathan Sehring, president of IFC Entertainment. He realized the traditional wide release and promotion model didn't make sense for most independent and foreign films, especially in markets less diverse than the Bay Area. "There's an audience in every city in the country for these movies that doesn't have to be enough to sell out a screen in Columbus, Ohio."

One of the first major filmmakers to explore such options was Oscar winner Steven Soderbergh, whose "Bubble" was released by Magnolia in 2006 simultaneously in theaters, on VOD and on DVD.

"I've been a fan of taking advantage of the various models available because of the new technology, to reach people you might not normally, especially because the cost of releasing movies just keeps going up," Soderbergh says. "I think there's a real desire for someone to come up with a unified-field theory of distribution, and I don't think it's possible."

But not everyone is on board. In response to the multi-platform release of "Bubble," John Fithian, president of the National Association of Theater Owners, known as NATO, told USA Today that such distribution was "the biggest threat to the viability of the cinema industry today."

Sehring and Magnolia President Eamonn Bowles are unfazed by the NATO blockade against their films:

"Most major chains would never have played this type of movie anyway," says Sehring. "If anything, I think day-and-date helps generate awareness of a film. I can say that pretty confidently because we've had our best year ever, the first six months of 2009. And that's at the box office."

Ted Mundorff, chief executive officer of Landmark Theatres, a top art-house chain (and sister company of Magnolia) whose cinemas include San Francisco's Embarcadero Center, agrees.

"(IFC's) 'Che' and 'In the Loop' have gotten a lot of exposure from VOD advertising. I think their box office has benefited from those releases," he says, but adds, "Push the clock forward, and let's say 100 films a week are released on the day-and-date basis, and those films will become diluted box-office-wise."

Adjusting balances

Magnolia adjusts the balances of venues and release windows for each film, including some pre-theatrical VOD runs, and uses a tiered pricing plan that drops as the movie ages.

"It used to be a struggle to convince producers and filmmakers about this program, but now people realize that, OK, the old methods weren't working," says Bowles. "We're getting films offered to us that we'd never have been in play for a year ago." He cites the forthcoming "Ong Bak 2," "The Burning Plain" with Charlize Theron and "Red Cliff," John Woo's Chinese epic.

Among filmmakers, Swanberg is a believer in mixed VOD and theatrical releases.

"I definitely think they have (increased my audience). IFC released 'Hannah Takes the Stairs' theatrically in 12 cities and I assumed, naively, that would be how most people saw the movie, but the large majority saw it on VOD. So our two films since then, we've anchored the releases on the VOD side."

Even rental-and-streaming services such as Netflix in Los Gatos Netflix have a role to play (see chart). Meanwhile, indies may still enjoy the occasional event release.

Franny Armstrong, writer-director of the new climate-change documentary "The Age of Stupid," will extend the satellite-linked cinema network of NCM Fathom from 450 U.S. theaters (including the Bay Area's Regal Cinemas) to 35 countries for the film's Sept. 21 global premiere, featuring a panel that includes former Secretary-General of the United Nations Kofi Annan, and live music by Radiohead's Thom Yorke.

Very green

"It's very green," she says. "You don't make film prints. You hire satellite trucks and you can have a live event in cinemas all over the country. It's very low carbon."

Armstrong funded her film by selling shares to groups and individuals (shares are still available); she says owning the rights to her previous film, "McLibel," enabled the filmmaking team and its investors to reach people they wouldn't have otherwise.

"There's a cable channel called Link TV, and I think it was $500 they could give us," she says, laughing, of a deal most distributors would have nixed. "But they got 3 million viewers." {sbox}

Passing Strange: The Movie is now on Comcast on Demand; it opens at the Embarcadero in San Francisco on Friday.

Michael Ordoña is a freelance writer. E-mail him at pinkletters@sf chronicle.com.