"Only in Theatres/Only at the Movies"

Factual Questions
1

I’ve often wondered why a lot of Movie Posters will have a slogan to the effect of “Only in Theatres” or “Only at the Movies” on it, when clearly this isn’t the case- most (if not all) movies will get a DVD release not all that long (3-6 months, IIRC) after they’ve finished their run (although I have seen rare cases of films coming out on DVD while they’re still finishing their theatre run).

So what’s the rationale behind this? The fact they’re advertising the movie on a big poster at the cinema should pretty obviously indicate the film is getting a cinema release- so why mention that as a separate slogan?

2

I’ve seen this not just on poster but also on TV ads. The message they’re trying to get across is that the movie is not available on DVD (yet), so if you want to see it NOW you need to go to your friendly neighborhood theater.

And that’s exactly what they want you to do. They don’t want you to wait until the DVD comes out, they want big box office numbers to boost their revenue. The DVD sales are icing on the cake.