Veronica Mars to Be Available For Digital Purchase and Rental on Opening Day

Veronica Mars

, the crowdfunded movie continuing the story of the long-cancelled WB/CW TV series by the same name, will come to iTunes, Amazon and participating cable and satellite outlets on March 14, the same day it opens in select theaters, the film's director and series creator Rob Thomas announced today. "Getting a movie into a theater might sound easy, but believe me: I had courtside seats this season, and it's not," Thomas explained, telling fans that despite that, the WB Distribution team managed to get the movie into a few hundred theaters, both in the United States and Canada as well as select pre-release events and a few international screenings in The UK, Ireland and Germany. "Getting into more theaters might also have been easier if we hadn't promised that backers at $35 and up would receive digital copies of the movie within a few days of the film's release. It's basic math: movie theaters try to show movies that people will come out to see, and that's a riskier proposition when 65,000+ people get copies of the movie on opening weekend," Thomas wrote, but "To me, the most important goal was always to make sure that every backer would be able to see the movie as soon as possible. That's what we promised when you jumped on board last spring, and today, I'm pleased to say that we've kept that promise: Backers and fans around the world will be able to see Veronica Mars, on March 14 – the same day it is released in US theaters." The film's production budget was covered by the Kickstarter campaign, but the theatrical release and home video sales are expected to make enough money to cover Warner's distribution and promotion expenses--and, in a long-shot bid, Thomas and company have expressed they hope the film does well enough to get sequels greenlit without crowdfunding help.