Movie studios want movies to get to your TV sooner

I saw “Mechanic: Resurrection” in August, and it’s already on Showtime! I could have saved $9. — Robert Smith

Well, Robert, here’s a rule I try to live by: When it comes to Jason Statham movies, unless they have the words “Fast,” “Furious” or “Transporter” in the title, you can almost always save your $9 and wait for them to show up on cable.

And I say that as a Statham fan. It’s just that, aside from spoofing his image alongside Melissa McCarthy in “Spy,” he’s made some really unfortunate movies lately.

Things are looking up, though, as reports began circulating shortly after the opening of “The Fate of the Furious” that, based on their chemistry, Statham’s Deckard Shaw and Dwayne Johnson’s Luke Hobbs would be getting their own spinoff movie.

Anyway, if the Hollywood studios have their say, you’ll be seeing movies like “Mechanic: Resurrection” on TV a whole lot sooner.

Pretty much every studio aside from Disney and Sony Classics wants to shrink the established 90-day window between a movie’s theatrical release and its availability on home video to as little as 30 days.

Most of those proposals include some type of premium video-on-demand service that would charge $30 to $50 to see a movie at home that quickly. On the surface, that seems mighty steep. But even if it’s just you and one other person, $25 each sounds pretty reasonable compared to the cost and the hassle of a night at the movies. Invite a group of friends over, and it’s practically free.

Once that happens — and even though theaters have been fighting it for years with everything at their disposal, it eventually will — movies will arrive on DVD sooner, and that will trickle down to shorter wait times for them to end up on premium channels such as Showtime and, eventually, basic cable channels such as FX.

In another decade, movies could be available on TV so quickly that multiplexes would be practically empty. Then they’d once again be considered exotic and could charge twice as much for the chance to watch a movie in peace without being surrounded by texters and talkers — or having to clean up after your friends spill beer and Cheetos all over your house.