The conventional wisdom for some time has been that having your film appear in any way to be destined for a home video release somehow undermines its theatrical viability. Theatrical bookers are known to have seen films available online for DVD purchase and refuse to show the movie.

On the other hand, sales of DVDs are shrinking in general, while rentals via Netflix are getting much bigger. And Netflix’s buys depend on how many people have queued the film, so a healthy window of opportunity before the DVD comes out is important.

Luckily, Netflix generally does not post the release date of films until a month before the street date. You can safely get information up about the film during the theatrical run. What’s more, many people are beginning to use Netflix like IMDB or Rotten Tomatoes- a source of information about the film. As soon as you get into festivals, Submit the data to Netflix.

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