You might be wondering what a piece of movie news is doing on your home theater site, but I assure you this is valuable information.

See, here’s the thing–Disney is asking theater owners to shave three whole weeks off the release of Alice in Wonderland, so they can turn around and get it on DVD and Blu-ray and streaming that much faster. Theater owners, of course, aren’t happy about that at ALL because it cuts into their profits–the opening weekend take goes mostly to the studios to pay rental fees on the films they show.  It’s when a movie’s been out for weeks and weeks that the theaters start making their money back on it.

But this goes to underscore the importance of the home theater.  The studios want shortened theatrical runs. This will undercut theater profits.  Without profits, theaters will dry up and blow away.  This is why your home theater will likely be the future of theatrical releasing, folks–but then, most of us knew that already.