Last night, I started getting emails regarding Netflix’s decision to shutter their Red Envelope Entertainment division, which invested in co-productions, partnered with larger distributors such as Magnolia and IFC to give their acquisitions a boost, and acquired indie films for theatrical distribution on their own. Over 100 films were released under Rev Envelope since it sprung up in 2005, including a number of press darlings and minor hits such as 2 Days in Paris and The Puffy Chair. Hacking Netflix reported last night that Netflix would only be letting 4 employees go in the course of Red Envelope’s dissolution; this morning, indieWIRE pegged the number at 5, which was the entire division, including executive Liesl Copeland.
The problem seems to be that Red Envelope forced Netflix to essentially compete against the Hollywood studios, indie arms and legit indies who supply the bulk of their content. Netflix will now focus its energy on moving content from those sources into digital distribution pipelines. Which will be awesome, once they finally broker a deal with Apple so that you and I can watch their G-D movies on our MacBooks and iPhones…
Meanwhile, a related (if inverse) story broke at roughly the same time, concerning IndiePix. …Read more
Since the conversation about internet and day-and-date distribution really started to heat up in 2005, the alternatives to theatrical distribution have seemed to only multiply and evolve, while the general perception of public exhibition has remained about the same: filmmakers like it, but in terms of bottom line, it’s only useful as an extended commercial for ancillaries such as DVD. But is that perception changing? Two related quotes of note popped up in the feeds this morning.
