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My dad is old, and he kind of looks like W.C. Fields. He’s old enough that there was a time in his life when people probably thought he actually was W.C. Fields. His favorite movie is D**octor Zhivago](Doctor Zhivago (1965) - Movie | Moviefone), and I’m pretty sure he hasn’t enjoyed a movie since (he walked out of The Dark Knight](http://www.moviefone.com/movie/the-dark-knight/27016/main?icid=movsmartsearch) in favor of *Mamma Mia!*And he walked out of Mamma Mia! in favor of a ham sandwich). He’s not much of a movie-goer, but if you asked him which recent film is about “A swat team sent into a pitch black apartment building where a virus that turns people into demons is raging,” he’d instantly be able to tell you that it’s Rec 2,](http://www.moviefone.com/movie/rec-2/1399358/main?icid=movsmartsearch) the plot of which he was intimately familiar with a month before its theatrical release. That’s because my dad aimlessly watches a lot of television, and in his endless quest to find C-SPAN he rolls his eyes across the Magnolia Pictures “Early Screening” tab embedded in Time Warner Cable’s VOD menus several dozen times a month.
In October of 2007 Magnolia inaugurated their “Ultra VOD” program by allowing cable subscribers to watch Brian De Palma’s Redacted](Redacted (2007) - Movie | Moviefone) prior to its appearance in cinemas, and have since made approximately 75 films a year available to rent directly through VOD services. The vast majority of those titles have been made available day & date with their theatrical bows, but only a chosen few have received the “Ultra” service and been beamed exclusively into viewers living rooms for $10.99 a pop ($9.99 in standard definition). And my dad is a perfect example of why Magnolia would be interested in providing customers with early access to much-anticipated titles for less than the cost of a movie ticket.Filed under: Distribution, Home Entertainment, Movie Marketing
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