'Jackass 2.5' hits web, not theaters
NEW YORK (AP) - December 13, 2007 The first two films - spun off from the former MTV series -
co-starred Johnny Knoxville and his gang of gross-out pranksters as
they performed stunts to the delight of their youthful fans. But
for the sequel "Jackass 2.5," the dirty daredevils pull a new
stunt: bypassing the movie theater entirely.
"Jackass 2.5" will instead be released to the Internet. The
feature - which combines unreleased footage from "Jackass Number
Two" and new content - was announced Thursday as a joint venture
between Viacom-owned Paramount Pictures and MTV Networks.
"It's the first broadband movie ever distributed by a major
studio," said Thomas Lesinski, President of Paramount Pictures
Digital Entertainment.
Blockbuster Inc. will present "Jackass 2.5" free of charge at
www.blockbuster.jackassworld.com beginning Dec. 19 through Dec. 31;
on Dec. 26, DVDs of the film will be available for purchase on the
site and at major retailers, as well as for rent at Blockbuster
stores and the company's Web site. The film will also be available
for download at iTunes, Amazon.com and other sites - at a price.
In lieu of box-office sales, the venture expects to make money
from DVD sales, downloads and embedded ads online - the latter
being exactly the kind of new-media revenue stream that Hollywood
writers are striking to get a piece of. While that wouldn't
necessarily apply to "Jackass 2.5" because it didn't require
writers, the marketing strategy is an example of what writers
expect to see more of in the future.
Lesinski said the nature of "Jackass 2.5" made it a natural to
try out on this new form of distrubution.
"When this idea first came up, it was clear that `Jackass' had
a lot of potential on the Internet," Lesinski said. "First of
all, the demographics are just right. And, if you go on to Youtube
today, you can see there's lots and lots of (people) doing stunts
... a lot of those people are just copying what the `Jackass' guys
developed a long time ago."
Lesinski said the movie's online distribution has potential to
be "a game-changing model for Hollywood." But will those used to
watching 5-minute YouTube vidos sit still for a longer film?
Lesinski thinks so - and, at some point, he says, clips of
various scenes will be ripe for viral video sharing.
MTV and Knoxville's Dickhouse Productions will continue
jackassworld.com, re-launching it Feb. 9 as "the official home of
all things jackass," to include interactive features including
blogs, but not user-solicited stunts or pranks.
