Present - Saturday, January 13, 2007 early afternoon

Movie Tails: I am reading The Long Tail by Chris Anderson. I am basically trying to wrestle with what the long tail means to health care and have not reached any conclusions about that yet. But I just had an idea for a business that I thought I would slap down while it was fresh in my mind. [Which of course means that it is pretty unpolished too.] My business is called the Wisdom of Crowds Movie Theater. It operates (as a franchise?) in locations all over, but is driven through a single web portal site. The theaters themselves show movies downloaded from online sources [digital movies, not the film versions that I guess are still shown in theaters today]. Users of the web site will place their local zip code on their Google home page link (in their local stuff tab), but sometimes they will wander around and see what's playing and winning in other cities and sometimes this will generate votes for something new to their own locale.
I was interested in the idea because I almost never like movies -- they always feel to me like a cheaply-made version of the entertainment to be gained from reading -- and the arty ones still feel cheaply-made but aren't even entertaining. Maybe there are movies I would like out there in the tail. Anyway, here's the thing that makes this business successful. An Amazon.com-like avoidance of up-front inventory costs (which Chris Anderson asserts limits the movie industry from showing more than 100 movies or so a year). The particular showings in each screen of the multi-plex by each theater location is determined through a two-part voting system. In the run-up to the "booking" of the film, anyone on the web can vote for any available film and the web site keeps a running tally of the vote getters. In the final days/hours before nail down of the schedule of showings, the bookings get confirmed through advance ticket sales made at the web site. A priceline.com type sale can be made so if you buy a ticket for a showing that does not make the final cut, you are not charged. Then, like the airlines, when the schedule is presented as final, ticket holders can "book seats" at particular show-times. Although this method will still probably get the most showings for the blockbusters, the theaters can reserve the "early bird" showtime for senior citizens and only let them vote for that selection, and they can reserve an "art-house" showing for movies that arose from indy festivals and the like. They still guarantee a full house for the showing with this method, but they can cater to the tastes of their local audience. [Why not just let everyone see these long tail films at home using NetFlix? Because I think part of the social networking satisfaction on the web (see David Weinberger) arises from being part of a niche group -- locals showing up to the theater to see who else from their area voted with them? immensely satisfying. Can't you see friendships forming over always going the the 8:30 showing on screen 3 on Thursday? "I'm here, but I didn't vote for this one, did you? Bet it's gonna suck."]. I thought of this because while I was reading Chris Anderson's chapter 8 on commercial movies, my husband, prompted by a newspaper article, had jumped on line to look up a new BMW coupe being offered. [With the kids' college days drawing to a close in the near future, a car acquisition window might open up in our house -- of course, it might be the first car for one of the kids or the hybrid for me, who knows.] Anyway, one of the things car people seem to like is seeing the car in action in little movies. Is a composite newsreel of this car being put through its paces here and there at race-tracks, or being driven by James Bond for a few minutes in a feature film, a long-tail short-film that makes an associated long feature a bigger vote getter? Or could you cobble together a whole hour of such reels that enough car lovers would vote to see it in a scheduled time slot and even pay money to do so? Or could BMW pay for the tickets for a screening for this movie in return for email addresses for the ticket holders? Anyway, aren't newsreels another tidbit way way out there on the tail? [I can't stand to end a blog on a question because it reminds me of Sex in the City, a series I never took to - and won't link to either, though I have read one of Candace Bushnell's novels and it was amusing.]