Released straight to the net instead of DVD, movie theaters or TV.  And not because it is bad, but because that is where the audience is.  MTV Entertainment has made a bold move and embraced its viewers behavior with the launch Jackass 2.5 to the web.  An inside source at MTV tells me that the move is a curtain raiser for the new online home
for Jackass, “Jackass World” that will officially launch February 6, 2008. 

http://www.mtv.com/jackassworld/player/embed/jaw/wp/

The trades are a buzz with the news of a straight to web launch.  Here is what the Times had to say...

Paramount Pictures is lurching onto the Web with its “Jackass”
franchise, with what it says will be the first studio-backed feature
film to have its premiere online. And the studio hopes the result will
be considerably more pleasurable than the old MTV show’s trademark shot
to the groin — perhaps by paving the way for more profit-making
Web-only material.

On Dec. 19, the studio will make “Jackass 2.5” available in
connection with Blockbuster’s Movielink service. The hour-plus film has
original material and previously unseen outtakes from the second
“Jackass” movie in 2006. The new movie, made for less than $2 million,
will stream for free but will have 15- or 30-second commercials before
and after it plays.

As much as it sounds like a marketing ploy from Paramount, any move to
debut a movie online for free has got to be a positive in the overall
progression from the traditional media model to one that reflects the
realities of the internet age.

Of course it will take all of about 5
seconds for the movie to be ripped from the site and put onto
BitTorrent, but maybe at least in this example, Paramount, unlike many
of its competitors, may not be jackass’s after all.  Now the question is which brands are going to get into the MTV game? 

If you think this is a smart one, then wait to see what they do with a project called Midnight at the Movies.