Yesterday, November 20, 10 years ago now, Apple's base service for music and synchronization of its different devices launched its first film produced exclusively for iTunes: "Purple Violets", a romantic comedy directed by Edward Burns.
Although the film was presented in April 2007, and was received with good reviews in the Tribeca Film Festival of that same year, It barely got offers for its distribution, whose production exceeded $ 4 million. Therefore, the producers decided to launch an unconventional release, allowing the film to be available exclusively on iTunes.
Thus, Purple Violets it became the first film to officially debut on iTunes, a landmark of the time. In Eddy Cue's own words, after confirming the exploitation agreement for this feature film:
“We are in the early stages of this idea of marketing a movie via iTunes. Of course we want to have and offer all the Hollywood movies, but we like the fact that we can be a great distribution vehicle for the lowliest.. "
Purple violet counted, among its protagonists, with Selma Blair, Debra Messing and Patrick Wilson. To this day, it is not a title especially remembered for its audiovisual quality or innovation. Nevertheless, It was a film that was ahead of its time, quickly adopting a new digital distribution system that is still expanding today.
Currently, companies like Netflix y Amazon They are taking advantage of the path that began at the time Purple violet hand in hand with Apple, offering original content, exclusive for its platforms. Apple has assured that its intention is to follow this model and has committed to spend about a billion $ for the development and distribution of their own shows.
The idea, according to large investors and film platforms, can go through a middle point, where the films offered in theaters are also offered (a few weeks later), at a higher price, on platforms such as iTunes . In short the production team of Purple Violets as well as the director Burns They were going in the right direction, although ahead of their time.