Simultaneous release – good for movies that can't make it in theaters

Reel Blog   

You might expect the director of media for the National Association of Theatre Owners to believe that, but so does Jonathan Sehring, president of IFC Films, which releases a small number of films in theaters and on pay-per-view simultaneously. According to the article in Weekly Variety:

Sehring makes it clear that First Take is an outlet only for movies that figure to have a hard time drawing people into the theaters. For example, “You Kill Me,” the IFC-distributed movie starring Ben Kingsley, Tea Leoni and Luke Wilson, which opened in theaters last month, will not go to First Take because it’s projected to pull seven figures at the multiplexes. (The movie has grossed $829,000 so far in limited release.)

PPV and direct-to-video releases are honorable and profitable ways to distribute movies. Why drag movie theaters into it?