Can Wal-Mart Alone Stop Single-Window Movie Releases?

David Card | October 25, 2005, 06:38 PM

Edward Jay Epstein is making a living at Slate essentially re-printing his book on the movie industry chapter by chapter, with newsworthy updates. (Don't get me wrong; I liked the book.) This week he's quite provocative on the familiar "Mark Cuban wants to break down release windows" story. Epstein says the only thing holding studios back is Wal-mart.

Wal-Mart executives told Viacom's home entertainment division in no uncertain terms that if any studio does away with the 45-day video window for a single title, they would risk losing access to Wal-Mart's shelf space for all of its titles. Wal-Mart provided studios with more than one-third of their U.S. DVD revenue in 2004. In the face of Wal-Mart's retail power, the studios have not dared (yet) to do away with the protective video window.