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FRED ROSEN doesn’t really care for big gatherings. This is no doubt a little ironic, given that he was the president and CEO of Ticketmaster, which by the end of his stewardship handled the ticketing for some 80 percent of all major concerts. But 22 years after leaving the company he built and where he made his fortune, Rosen prefers much more intimate affairs, like dinners at home with a few close friends. The thing is, he also likes movies. A lot. Rosen estimates he and his wife, the writer and producer Nadine Schiff, see about 100 films a year. And they don’t like waiting months to order them on pay-per-view or stream them on Netflix.

It was these competing desires—to both “not leave my house,” as Rosen put it, and to see new movies the day they come out—that led him to his latest project: Red Carpet Home Cinema, a service that enables high-net-worth individuals to watch first-run movies from home the same day as their theatrical release. (The Red Carpet box sells for $15,000; films typically cost between $1,500 and $3,000 to access.) “For almost every type of product, there is a luxury version available to those who can afford it,” said Rosen. “I can walk into Kmart and buy a belt for five dollars or spend $3,000 for a Gucci belt. Both hold up your pants. For movies, I

Premiere on DemandCan’t wait for it to arrive on Netfl ix? A new ser vice al lows you to watch

f irst-run movies at home—even on the night they come out .

by David Katz. Photographs by The Ingalls

A private screening of The

Kitchen at the Santa Monica

penthouse of Joe Wender and Ann Colgin.

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looked around and I didn’t understand why there was no luxury option.” And so Rosen enlisted his friend Dan Fellman, a retired Warner Bros. executive, to help him change that. “For us, this is all about lifestyle—it’s something my friends and I wanted for ourselves,” said Rosen, whose approachability (he answers his own

phone) and salesmanship were no doubt instrumental to his success in transforming Ticketmaster from a tiny outfit into a market-defining behemoth.

To demonstrate his new service, Rosen invited centurion to a dinner party/screening at the home of close friends Joe Wender and Ann Colgin, who recently installed a Red Carpet box at their Santa Monica penthouse. Wender, a Goldman Sachs veteran, and Colgin own and operate Napa’s celebrated Colgin Cellars. Rounding out the dinner were Eric George, a Los Angeles litigator who has worked with Rosen; his wife, Shayna, an executive at online retailer Who What Wear; and Courtney Wartman, director of brand marketing for the fashion label Free People. Before the screening, the guests enjoyed a multicourse menu of mini lamb chops and Wagyu rib eye presided over by Bella Lantsman, the longtime general manager of Wolfgang Puck’s Chinois

on Main restaurant—and plenty of Colgin wine. During dinner, Rosen laid out his vision for Red Carpet.

“It’s like the Bel Air Circuit,” he said, referring to the studio tradition of delivering first-run movies to the homes of about 300 industry heavyweights, including Steven Spielberg and Tom Cruise. (It’s also sometimes called the Bicycle Circuit, because early moguls like Louis B. Mayer and Daryl Zanuck received their reels via bike messenger.) The circuit, however, is invite-only; you can’t pay to be on it, or at least you never could. In a way, Rosen and Fellman are aiming to change that.

Their first challenge was to convince the studios that offering first-run movies to a select few willing to pay for the privilege would provide a nice source of ancillary revenue that would not threaten their core business. That messaging was key, as the duo aren’t the first to attempt this. In 2013, Blockbuster backed a company

From left: Sunset cocktails, with Red Carpet founder Fred Rosen seated at left; decanting wine from hostess Ann Colgin’s celebrated label, Colgin Cellars.

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that charged $35,000 for the initial setup and $500 each for first-run films, but that failed. So have similar schemes launched by tech types, like Screening Room, backed by Napster and Facebook executive Sean Parker. Rosen says these companies withered because they treated the studios like obstacles rather than partners. “The way I built up Ticketmaster was by working with the venues,” he says. “We’re not here to disrupt anything. We’re too old to disrupt.”

Part of their pitch was that the customer base would be very targeted. Every potential Red Carpet subscriber is thoroughly vetted. (There is an application to join.) Rosen also let the studios dictate the wholesale price of each film and persuaded them that their movies wouldn’t be stolen and pirated. To that end, Red Carpet works by downloading encrypted movies in full to a subscriber’s device and then permitting playback only from the subscriber’s registered address after a unique code is entered. (Each film purchased can be watched twice in 36 hours.)

Having big-name investors from entertainment’s old guard, including former Paramount CEO Sherry Lansing and former MGM CEO Harry Sloan, likely didn’t hurt their pitch to Hollywood, either. So far their game plan seems to be working, certainly more than in previous attempts. Red Carpet currently has deals for upcoming releases from Paramount, Warner Bros., and Fox (the latter was made before Fox was acquired by Disney, which is still a holdout, as are Sony and Universal). Still, even with just their current partners, Red Carpet will be able to offer up to 60 first-run movies annually. With the official marketing campaign set to begin this fall, so far fewer than 100 boxes have been set up. Rosen says their goal is three to five thousand customers. While that’s still limited, “it would be enough to generate $250 million to $300 million in annual revenue—and that’s free money for

the studios,” explained Rosen.After dinner, the group moved

into Wender and Colgin’s intimate screening room to watch The Kitchen, a drama starring Tiffany Haddish, Melissa McCarthy, and Elisabeth Moss, which had hit theaters the previous day. As little bags of popcorn were passed around, Rosen walked Wender through the on-screen interface. “For us, the key thing was simplicity,” said Rosen. Though it was

his first time, Wender had no trouble navigating the system, punching in his unique code, and confirming the $3,000 purchase. Given that the movie grossed only $5.5 million in theaters on its opening weekend, no one at the studio is likely complaining. And while this particular film may be available to stream sooner than later, to those seeking the ultimate luxury movie experience, that’s not really the point. redcarpethomecinema.com

“For a lmost EV ERY T Y PE of PRODUC T, there is a LU X URY

V ER SION avai lable to those W HO can A FFOR D IT,” says

R ED C A R PE T HOME CINEM A founder FR ED ROSEN.

From left, Colgin, Wender, the writer Nadine Schiff, and her husband, Fred Rosen.