AOL announced yesterday that they plan to release their first movie, a horror film titles “Incubus,” as a direct to download commodity. Skipping both the theater and direct to video models, the Tara Reid vehicle will take advantage of AOL’s popular RED service which boasts about 4 million visitors a month before becoming a free internet destination. At $7.99 to own and $3.49 to rent, the price is certainly more right than Apple’s new movie store, and they sold over a million dollars in downloaded flicks in less than a week’s time.
“Bird and Shapiro used to work together at Hanna-Barbera, the cartoon production company. While hanging out at Shapiro’s home in the Hollywood Hills this summer, Shapiro mentioned that his production company, Automatic, had recently finished “Incubus,” which was shot in Romania last year with a budget of about $5 million. He queued up the trailer on his big-screen TV.
Bird said the movie looked fun. When he heard it didn’t have distribution yet, he suggested selling it on AOL Red to promote the site’s relaunch. They hashed out the details: $7.99 for purchase, $3.49 for a five-day rental, no burning to a DVD.
“This is the beginning of what could be a major new distribution model,” Bird said. “We have no clue what’s going to happen…. We’re fully cognizant of the fact that he may not be buying a new house off this.”
