Day-and-date-release

A film with zero commercial prospects – a tiny budget, no studio, no stars (in fact, no professional actors), shot entirely on video – could become the first champion, or the first casualty, in the battle over where and when you can watch first-run movies.

“Bubble,” Oscar-winning director Steven Soderbergh’s ultra-indie about dirty dealings at an Ohio doll factory, will be available for sale on DVD within days of its release in a handful of theaters Jan. 27. The same day, it will debut on TV’s video-on-demand services.

“The industry and, more important, consumers, are ready to hear somebody say, ‘The way it is now doesn’t make sense anymore,’ ” says Todd Wagner, co-owner of 2929 Productions, which is financing and releasing “Bubble.”

“The (old) model is, I don’t want to go so far as to say broken, but (it) certainly doesn’t align with the way people want to consume entertainment today,” Wagner says.

For Soderbergh, this presents a chance to get more offbeat, unusual and noncommercial filmmaking experiments in front of viewers.

“Otherwise, it’s an idea that wouldn’t have seen the light of day,” he says.

The way “Bubble” is being handled is known in Hollywood as a “day-and-date release,” which means everything comes out on the same date: theaters, video, TV.

The goal is to put the film on as many screens as possible, including the ones in your home, to capitalize on viewers who prefer to forgo the communal theatergoing experience.

Soderbergh plans to make at least six films for release this way. He’s working on “The Good German,” with George Clooney, which is set for the traditional movie release pattern. But he hopes to start another “Bubble”-type film next year.

“I’m convinced that five years from now, everything is going to go out like this,” he says.

The practice is particularly attractive for the makers and distributors of smaller films such as “Bubble,” which have a hard time getting distribution in theaters.

It’s also an attempt to get ahead of the way consumers are accessing entertainment in new formats, including the computer, iPod and cell phones.

For studios, the benefit is the money saved by marketing all the formats at once, instead of one after the other.

“It sometimes costs $50 million to $100 million to market a major film in theaters, then you mount a $10 million or $20 million campaign for DVD,” says Scott Hettrick, editor in chief of the trade journal DVD Exclusive. “They could save tens of millions of dollars per movie.”

Despite potential savings, nobody just yet is willing to risk a powerhouse product – or even B-movie fare – on such an experiment.

“Bubble” has no connection to any Hollywood mega-corporation, but many will be watching the experiment.

“You have to pay attention,” says Tom Sherak, a partner in Revolution Studios, which recently released “Rent” and “The Fog.”

“I’m not quite sure it’s a good thing for the business as we know it, but the business changes every 20 seconds now,” Sherak says.

Soderbergh, whose goal is to at least earn back the $1.6 million budget for “Bubble,” also is curious how his business partners will quantify success.

“I want to know if it doesn’t go as well as we hope, what do we do on the next one?” he says.

The main questions are: Does the popularity of one format take away from the audience for the other? Or does the option of home viewing lure in people who wouldn’t have gone to the theater anyway, thus creating new customers instead of cannibalizing the theater crowd?

Major theater owners hate the idea. Many say it ultimately will cost them customers, and they refuse to support it.

Some people see a movie multiple times in theaters, then buy it on DVD and watch it later on cable or broadcast TV, says Kendrick Macdowell, general counsel for the National Association of Theatre Owners. He believes the “Bubble” model could dampen that enthusiasm.

“We don’t like it,” says Terrell Falk, spokeswoman for Cinemark USA Inc., which has 3,357 screens. “If it’s out on DVD, we wouldn’t show it in any of our first-run theaters.”

That attitude puts fear in major Hollywood studios, which need to keep exhibitors happy or they won’t get the thousands of screens necessary to remain competitive in the blockbuster market.

Wagner won’t specify how many DVDs of “Bubble” will be for sale, but they will cost $30, above the typical $20 price.

Wagner insists the experiment won’t kill theaters, and part of 2929’s business plan is to offer a small percentage of DVD sales to theaters that show the film as a goodwill gesture for any lost patronage.

While few studios have taken up the omni-debut idea, the Walt Disney Co. has expressed interest.

Last August, about a month before he formally assumed his new role as head of Disney, CEO Robert Iger told investors in a teleconference: “I don’t think it’s out of the question that a DVD can be released in effect in the same window as a theatrical release.”

Iger has made TV shows such as “Lost” and “Desperate Housewives” available for downloading off Apple’s iTunes Internet service the day after they air on ABC, which also could be done with movies – although there is no indication that is part of his plan.

Last month, Iger told The Wall Street Journal he had wanted to sell DVDs of the animated Disney comedy “Chicken Little” in the lobby of theaters showing the picture, but the theater chains balked.

“So you’ve seen the movie and just as when you go to a play on Broadway or a concert, you can buy the DVD. That’s when people are feeling best about it, and you cut the theater owner in to the video sale,” he said.

Other companies besides Disney are exploring ways to close the window:

•20th Century Fox is taking a more cautious approach. DVD Exclusive reported Monday that Peter Chernin, chief operating officer of parent company News Corp., plans to make movies available for one-time viewing in a high-definition format 60 days after the theatrical debut.

•Google has announced that its new Google Video Store will provide users with the option to buy and download videos, amateur films, NBA games and some classic TV shows through CBS.

•Rainbow Media this year plans to release three films through a video-on-demand service it is pitching to cable firms at the same time it releases them on the big screen at the IFC Center in New York.

Among the films Rainbow has acquired for the project: “American Gun,” a drama with Marcia Gay Harden; “Sorry, Haters,” a thriller starring Robin Wright Penn as an attorney trying to help a jailed Muslim; and “CSA: The Confederate States of America,” a faux-documentary from producer Spike Lee about contemporary America if the South won the Civil War.

Rainbow Media president Joshua Sapan says he’s aiming mainly at independent-movie fans who live outside urban centers.

“People will read a review in The New York Times and (if) you’re living in Des Moines, or Madison, Wis., you can’t see (the movie),” Sapan says.

With his plan, “you’ll be able to go home and turn on your television and stay absolutely current in the world of indie film.”