The movie world is a fascinating industry to watch. It's developing and changing all the time, in unexpected ways.

Cable and satellite television are now supplying more channels to more people across the world with more than half of all pay-television subscribers now live in the Asia-Pacific region. And every minute, about 20 hours’ worth of content is added to YouTube. So with the Internet, we have much more choice in movies, films and books.

And yet despite that, blockbusters are doing better than ever before. The latest one, New Moon, is doing brilliantly at the box office, breaking the record set by Twilight.

It's a point examined in The Economist this week. Audiences are fragmenting into niches and consolidating around blockbusters. It applies to movies, music and books. Despite all this choice, people are going for best sellers and big hits. Similarly, music fans have an unlimited choice of songs that they can download free of charge and yet, the ad-supported music streaming services say fans are going for the big hits. They reckon the most popular 5% of tracks account for 80% of all streams.

All technology does is give people more choice in how they consume the product.

It's a point taken up in this discussion by Wharton academics on the impact of the shrinking window between theatrical releases and DVD releases. In 1997, the average video release window was five months and 22 days and now it's four months and 11 days.

This means that studios will have to embrace technology which would, for example, allow them to deliver first run movies on cable and satellite TV in a digitally secure way. That's perfect for people who don't go out or who live far from the multiplex. And they could charge a good fee for it, say $50 for a first run movie.

Where does that leave cinemas? It means they will have to look at other business models, like for example retail or IMAX screens. Watch this space.