Joss Whedon’s latest film ‘In Your Eyes’ premiered Sunday night at the Tribeca Film Festival. For those not lucky enough to score a seat to the premiere, the wait to see the film will not be long. In fact, a digital rental is available now for $5.00 at inyoureyesmovie.com.
Based on Whedon’s loyal fanbase, it is almost a safe bet that a major studio would have picked up the film. Still, Whedon has surely seen the success that Louis C.K. has had premiering yearly stand-up specials via his own website and the appetite that audiences have for alternate distribution methods.
Vimeo is powering ‘In Your Eyes‘ via its Vimeo On Demand platform, and the film has been translated into Spanish, German, Portuguese, French, and Japanese for the worldwide release.
Whedon announced the surprising distribution method via video:
While Netflix, Amazon, and Hulu have been making news for its original content plays within the TV landscape, Vimeo has been relatively quiet; but gaining the distribution rights to such a high-profile release may change things.
When asked about how its competitors’ recent moves have factored into its original content strategy, Vimeo’s General Manager of Audience Networks, Greg Clayman, told Lost Remote: “Vimeo is already playing a leading role in the direct distribution movement with over 8K titles added organically to our platform across a wide range of content. We’re not focusing on original content production right now but certainly may do as we grow.
Clayman also discussed the process of obtaining the film, why a Whedon film is a good match for Vimeo’s audience, and the company’s acquisition strategy moving forward:
Lost Remote: How difficult was the acquisition process for the rights to the film?
Greg Clayman: The team at Bellwether always intended to do something different with ‘In Your Eyes’ and the collaboration with Vimeo made perfect sense from the get go!
LR: Why is a Joss Whedon film a good match for Vimeo’s audience?
Clayman: Empowering filmmakers with the tools to reach their audiences worldwide is what Vimeo On Demand is and Joss has a large and loyal following. That’s
why we created our embedable player that is powering the inyoureyesmovie.com site. It’s pretty exciting and we’re thrilled to see people of Joss’ caliber getting behind the direct distribution movement.
LR: Does Vimeo intend to pursue more exclusive distribution rights to films or TV shows?
Clayman: In 2013 we started experimenting with title acquisitions, but recently unveiled a $10M fund to accelerate our investment in bringing quality individual titles and catalogs suited to Vimeo¹s unique audience to our VOD platform.