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Netflix Pulls Out of Cannes Following Rule Change (variety.com)
Netflix and Cannes are breaking up, at least for now. On Wednesday, Netflix chief Ted Sarandos said that the streaming platform won't be sending any films to the prestigious French festival, formally severing the strained relationship between the two power players. The decision was a long time coming, after Cannes established a rule that forbade films without a theatrical distribution plan from its competition. From, a report: In an exclusive interview with Variety, Netflix's chief content officer says that the festival sent a clear message with a new rule that bans any films without theatrical distribution in France from playing in competition. Netflix could screen some of its upcoming movies out of competition, but Sarandos says that doesn't make sense for the streaming service. "We want our films to be on fair ground with every other filmmaker," Sarandos says. "There's a risk in us going in this way and having our films and filmmakers treated disrespectfully at the festival. They've set the tone. I don't think it would be good for us to be there."
Netflix made a big splash at the prestigious film festival last year with two movies that showed in competition: Bong Joon-ho's "Okja" and Noah Baumbach's "The Meyerowitz Stories." But after the 2017 announcement, French theaters owners and unions protested the inclusion of these films to Thierry Fremaux, the artistic director of Cannes. Netflix was amenable to having their movies play on big screens in France, but a law in the country requires movies to not appear in home platforms for 36 months after their theatrical release.
Netflix made a big splash at the prestigious film festival last year with two movies that showed in competition: Bong Joon-ho's "Okja" and Noah Baumbach's "The Meyerowitz Stories." But after the 2017 announcement, French theaters owners and unions protested the inclusion of these films to Thierry Fremaux, the artistic director of Cannes. Netflix was amenable to having their movies play on big screens in France, but a law in the country requires movies to not appear in home platforms for 36 months after their theatrical release.
Its not just Cannes, the Oscars also has rules requiring a theatrical release. There are three ways I see this changing - (1) Netflix, Amazon et al. shower money on a struggling name-brand festival or (2) a streaming platform manages to release something that causes a public outcry for not being considered, or (3) the theatre industry completely crashes and burns in the USA. Perhaps #1 is most likely?
It is not to help viewers, it is to help theaters. In their mind, if the movie is available to quickly after theater release, people will just wait for the digital release, and not pay an overpriced cinema ticket (easily 15€ per person when 3D) They had the sale rules with VHS/DVD,etc albeit much shorter (I think 6 months, reduced now to 3, not sure) The French love stupid rules like that... In the same way, you cannot broadcast movies on tv channels on friday and saturday nights, so that people would go out instead.