FX Picks Up Cable Rights to 'The Twilight Saga'

Paying through the nose. That's what FX is doing to land the cable rights for The Twilight Saga. With similar deals costing around 10% of a film's domestic gross, that means the network could pay around $50 million just for the rights to the first two movies, with two more still to go. There is a cap in the contract, according to Variety, but Summit probably won't set that cap very low. It's definitely a gamble, because FX can't air Twilight until 2011 or New Moon until 2012. Eclipse will have to wait until 2013. Assuming that's another $20 - $30 million cha-ching, FX will lay out over $80 million for three movies it can't even begin airing for another year. The deal between FX and Summit also included Knowing, Push, and an absolute steal with The Hurt Locker, which should have a nice cable shelf life and only set back the network a couple million bucks. I have a hard time justifying the expense for a lot of these films, though. The Hurt Locker will not be a major DVD release so when it's on TV, you might get more interest, especially among those who didn't see the film in theaters and because of that wasn't willing to plunk down $20 - $30 on a DVD or Blu-ray. Watching that on basic cable makes sense. But a movie like New Moon, which will absolutely have an absurd few weeks on the home video market more than two years before the movie lands on FX. What's the audience going to be? Won't most people who would tune in for the "network television premiere" of a blockbuster of this magnitude already own the DVD? In this case more than most other blockbusters, incidentally, where it's driven by a madding crowd of devotees. Take it one step further and consider that by the time any of these movies hit FX all four could be on home video, probably in an enormous box set. Sure, FX will sell advertising, but can it possibly be enough to make the investment worth it? Maybe in 2009 it is; FX is doing quite well these days. But with DVR and online availability, who really knows what the advertising model will look like by the time this deal is through. And it's not like FX is buying the films in perpetuity. This is just a short-term rental, one that comes years after DVD and the pay cable run on Showtime. I'd use that money to gobble up another original series and let the vampires feed elsewhere.