Was flipping the channels the other night and saw that "Pan's Labyrinth" was on Cinemax. It was only released (limited) late December to qualify for the Oscars and didn't open wide until January. And it's only been out on DVD for 14 weeks. I've never seen a movie debut on TV (cable or otherwise) that fast after it's release in the theaters and DVD. Is this a record?

*** I didn't know where to post this, TV or Movie Talk. Thought the latter was more appropriate since it's talking about films in general.

7 months is perfectly fine for a premium cable release, especially now with how quickly it makes it to DVD.

You want a fast release? I think From Justin to Kelly was the quickest to any Home Ent. format... theatrical release 6/20/03.. DVD release 8/26/03.

Theatrical to home video = 3 to 6 months, to PPV another 3 to 6 months, and then to premium cable shortly after that. All this is very flexible and there are no real rules; it is usually up to the studio to decide how quickly they want to roll out their product

I noticed that too.

On the other hand, Snakes on a Plane took quite awhile to finally arrive on cable!

I know the time for movies to appear on DVD has become shorter. But typically a movie will appear on cable a year after it's released in the theaters. Once in a while, sometimes longer. "Superman Returns" debuts in September. Fourteen months after it opened.

Depends on the title. Pan's is a niche foreign language fantasy title. Just because it won some awards, I doubt it was going to muster any more DVD sales than it did for its run so off to premium cable it went.

Right. The closer a movie is to its theatrical release, the more it is worth to the studio.

Yeah, nothing really out of the ordinary with the time frame if you ask me.

and the HiDef airing looked great!

Time Warner had 300 available for PPV the day of it's DVD release, and
Comcast had it in HD On-Demand 2 weeks later.

FWIW, "Superman Returns" has been on since at least June.

Really? Was it Cinemax or Showtime? Because I could have sworn the commercial on HBO said "Premieres in September". Been looking for this. Anxious to see it in HiDef.

To Jackskeleton: Do you mean foreign movies? I could see that. I haven't really noticed when they have premiered on cable in the past. Commercial/Hollywood films I have.

I want to say Cinemax. I've seen it on usually at night (10ish), but then again I'm not home during the day.

[Edit: I searched and found some thread at some Superman site saying it premiered June 16 on Cinemax.]

oh yeah I've seen Superman Returns various days/times on Cinemax including their HiDef channel

Oh for fuck sake. Where the hell have I been!? I look at all the HiDef channels schedule once a month and Tivo all the shows and movies I want to watch. I don't know how this got past me. "SR" was my favorite movie last year. Gonna look for it the moment I get home.

just do what I do, that is if you have the time do a websearch on all your fave HiDef channels - I know I could do it more easily on my DV-R guide. But the channels I seach for online that give me an indication on what's on are:

HDNet
Cinemax/HBO
Starz

I also study the TV guide that comes out in the Post supplements on Saturday to see what the highlights of the week are on the movie channels.

Thanks for the tip. Will do!

It's a miracle compared to the average wait 20 years ago for new movies. The Empire Strikes Back and Return of the Jedi didn't show up on pay cable till 1986 and 1988, respectively, and on many occasions a big-event movie (e.g. the first two Indiana Jones movies, Ghostbusters, Beverly Hills Cop, Back to the Future) could take 2-4 years following the theatrical release to arrive on pay cable. So seeing Pan's Labyrinth on Cinemax eight months after its release isn't too shocking.

On the other hand, a recent example of this wait was The Passion of the Christ taking 2 years to hit Showtime (already notorious for their extended windows in-between theaters and TV; none of their Weinstein Company titles distributed through MGM have even touched the channel yet!). Shrek 2 and Spider-Man 2 each made more money and were on cable the next year.

You can also catch The Departed on Comcast On Demand HD for free. I think it's a mistake on their part but it's there under the "CinemaMAX HDTier3" heading under Premium Channels in HD. Odd thing is I don't subscribe to Cinemax; only HBO.

Ebert just did a write-up on this movie under his "Great Movies" bit.

The oddest thing is he now calls Cuaron's (in reference) Great Expectations an overlooked masterpiece, despite giving it a 3 out of 4 star rating. Must have grown on him.