I Want My VOD: How Video On Demand Broke Big in 2014

Chris Evans in Snowpiercer

Confession time: This past summer, I paid to see Snowpiercer on video on demand (VOD) even though I could have seen it in a theater. And based on the movie’s astronomical numbers, I wasn’t the only one. The movie performed so well on VOD that some argued the studio might have cannibalized its total box-office intake. Whether that’s true or not, the Snowpiercer situation has proved something that indie directors and distributors have been saying for some time: There are still plenty of primed, enthusiastic moviegoers out there for smart, challenging, nonmainstream fare. Your movie just needs to find them, and VOD provides one of the fastest-growing avenues to do so.

I should say that I didn’t make the decision to skip the theatrical experience lightly; the big screen was where I intended to have my first look at Snowpiercer, South Korean director Joon-ho Bong’s first English-language feature, set aboard a densely populated train zipping along through a postapocalyptic frozen future. Carving out time to visit a theater was proving difficult, though, and that’s when Snowpiercer’s handlers at Radius-TWC, a division of the Weinstein Company, announced that the movie would be available on VOD services earlier than anyone expected — July 11, a mere two weeks into its theatrical run. Initially, that announcement seemed like a demotion.

Watch the Snowpiercer trailer:

Fortunately, I was able to see for myself quite easily. On July 12, I pointed my Internet browser to Amazon’s Instant Video lineup, and Snowpiercer was there, waiting to be streamed for less than the cost of a New York movie ticket. Within the first five minutes, whatever guilt I felt about skipping the theatrical experience was replaced by deep satisfaction that I was able to watch Chris Evans fight his way to the front of the titular train from the comfort of my own couch. Seeing it on VOD as opposed to in a theater didn’t spoil my enjoyment one bit, and the unusual distribution strategy certainly didn’t dent the film’s overall reputation. Snowpiercer earned some of the year’s strongest reviews and has found a spot on numerous year-end best-of lists, including our own Top 40.

The movie’s critical and commercial success has raised the profile of Radius and the VOD world at large, helping cement the perception that this could be a viable and even lucrative option for the struggling indie-film market. The modern VOD era launched in 2006, when director Steven Soderbergh and business guru Mark Cuban teamed up to challenge the traditional distribution model by releasing Soderbergh’s micro-budget indie Bubble both in the Cuban-owned Landmark Theaters chain and on Cuban’s cable network, HDNet. That established a precedent that other distributors, such as IFC, Magnolia, and Radius, picked up and ran with, in the face of industry skepticism and the stigmatization of VOD as being the second cousin of the dreaded “direct-to-DVD” classification. It didn’t help that the major multiplex chains were extremely vocal in their resistance to any intrusion on the theatrical window, which scared off the bigger studios from dabbling in new distribution models. In 2011, for example, the Comcast-owned Universal proposed a plan to make the Ben Stiller-Eddie Murphy comedy Tower Heist available on demand for a premium price while it was still in theaters but backed off after multiplex owners made their displeasure blindingly clear.

Ben Stiller and Eddie Murphy in Tower Heist

The VOD stigma has steadily faded in recent years and arguably disappeared for good in 2014, when it seemed that more movies were being made available on VOD than ever before, with viewers being able to choose among well-reviewed titles like Coherence, Listen Up Philip, Blue Ruin, Nymphomaniac: Vol. 1 and Vol. 2, The Two Faces of January, The Babadook, Cheap Thrills and Grand Piano. Those are all films that would have had to fight for theater screens and audience attention in the crowded multiplex market but can weave around those obstacles in the VOD realm. Furthermore, this was also the year when discerning moviegoers got used to the idea that if a well-reviewed indie movie wasn’t going to be playing in their market anytime soon, VOD offered the most convenient alternative to waiting. (In fact, it was a bigger surprise to learn that an indie film didn’t include some kind of VOD component. For example, IFC opted to give Richard Linklater’s Boyhood the kind of limited platform release that used to be the indie industry standard, holding off on making it available any other way.) Of course, the glut of available films also meant that — just as with theatrical releases — several got lost in the shuffle. While Snowpiercer was raking in VOD dough, for example, Radius’s other summer release, Charlie McDowell’s The One I Love, struggled mightily to cross the $100,000 line. And that film at least had a pair of recognizable names — Elisabeth Moss and Mark Duplass — attached. Other indie obscurities, such as After the Dark, Art Machine, and Free Ride came and went without making much of a blip.

Elisabeth Moss and Mark Duplass in The One I Love

Still, the sheer number of offerings in 2014 also has made consumers more aware of their VOD options. It’s because of VOD’s increased profile that many have suggested that Sony employ that kind of strategy to save the controversial Seth Rogen-James Franco comedy The Interview after its theatrical release was canceled due to online threats. As of now, the execs at Sony haven’t committed to going the VOD route, but if they do change their minds, Sony would be the first major studio to employ that distribution method and challenge the might of the theater owners. Who knows? By the time 2019 rolls around, you might be able to stream The Avengers: Infinity War — Part II and The Justice League Part Two directly to your TV on their respective opening nights.

Image credit: TWC/Radius, AP Photo/Sundance Institute, Doug Emmett