I remember the days when you would literally have to wait years after its cinema release before you could by a film on VHS from the shops. But as the digital age is upon us this time has slowly got shorter and shorter and the current shortest standard time frame for a film to go from cinema to DVD/Blu-Ray is 122 days or roughly 4 months. This morning Disney have caused upset by announcing that they want to release Alice in Wonderland on DVD just 12 weeks after its theatrical release date. Cinemas in the US have yet to respond but the UK cinemas have backlashed against Disney’s decision and Odeon and Vue have pulled trailers and posters from their cinemas and stopped taking bookings for the film.

However Disney aren’t the only studio to go for this approach. Last year Paramount did the same with G I Joe releasing it three months after its cinema release in America (but wating the full 122 days in the UK) angering American cinema exhibitors again, and Sony are also going to be doing so Stateside with Did you meet the Morgans. However Alice in Wonderland is seen as a much bigger and more of a money making release that could run in theatres for much longer and is one of the first big releases to announce that it will also do so in the UK as well as in America. If you look at American release dates for other upcoming relases it seems like this will now be standard practice there and even if the UK cinemas Vue and Odeons rebellion does manage to extend the date I’m sure it wont be long before this also becomes commonplace practice here.