The New York Times has a good article today about the new rising star in Hollywood: the direct-to-DVD release. While straight-to-video used to be a scarlet letter or sorts for a movie, this method of distribution is now producing substantial hits in its own right. In fact some of these are making so much money now that you can be sure direct-to-download is going to be one of the big hits for Hollywood in the coming years when digital distribution takes off.

They main example the NYT article uses is the American Pie series, which is now on its 6th film even though they stopped going to theaters after the 3rd (American Wedding). While such movies cost less than $10 million to make, they can easily pull in three, four, or five times that by going direct-to-DVD. Studios are not only saving money in advertising for these films (which are increasingly sequels to highly successful franchises) but they save because they don't have to distribute nationwide to theaters. Just imagine when they can distribute completely digitally over something like iTunes; they'll save even more, which will mean more money on the backend.

The latest Jackass movie (Jackass 2.5) was a quasi-experiment in direct-to-download movies, but Paramount and Blockbuster had a confusing release strategy that included going online first to stream to free, then going online for sale, then going to Blockbuster stores to rent and buy, then eventually going to services like Joost for free once again, then going to television. Once the whole digital-distribution-to-the-living-room becomes a reality this process will be much more simplified - and no doubt much more profitable for studios.

The article also hits on something interesting that will be starting this summer - direct-to-DVD prequels and sequels that come out at the same time as their parent film in theaters. Warner Brothers is testing that out this year with its new Get Smart film. While the big-budget version with Steve Carell will obviously hit theaters, the direct-to-DVD Get Smarter will come to DVD at the same time (without Carrell in it). This is kind of akin to webisodes of TV series that play alongside the actual episodes or during a show's hiatus - only online.

I can certainly imagine one day in the future going to see a movie in the theater and my ticket being a voucher for either a free or discounted download of the direct-to-download sequel when I get home. It could not only entice people to keep going to theaters to see movies, it could potentially spawn a franchise for films that might not otherwise live beyond their first iteration. It's potentially a very good idea.

More thoughts:

• The Resurrection of the Movie Theater
• Dear Hollywood, Quit Making Wussy, Crap Comedies