WILL audiences want to pay $10.25 for a theater ticket to see a movie that will be available in five days on a disposable DVD for $5 – and, the week after that, for free on cable?

The Convex Group is betting millions that moviegoers will go for this unique distribution system for the New York-set holiday drama “Noel,” which is mostly aimed at promoting the disposal DVDs, available nationally for the first time.

The so-called Flexplay DVDs have a special light-sensitive coating rendering them unplayable within 48 hours after the airtight package is opened.

Buena Vista Home Video has test-marketed Flexplay discs over the past year on about 60 titles, which were sold in convenience stores, pizza parlors and other non-traditional outlets.

For “Noel,” the Flexplay DVDs will be sold for $4.99 through Amazon.com and in Sbarro’s mall outlets beginning Nov. 17.

That’s just five days after “Noel” – which stars Susan Sarandon, Paul Walker, Penélope Cruz and Robin Williams – bows in an unspecified number of theaters in New York, Los Angeles and Miami.

The movie will also have a single airing on TNT on Nov. 28.

Jeff Arnold, CEO of the New York-based Convex, said a $4 million TV advertising blitz would herald the “trimultaneous” release of “Noel” in theaters, DVD and on cable.

“Some consumers are going to watch it on the big screen, some are going to watch it on TV and some are going to watch it on DVD,” he said. “We might be cannibalizing some of the theater audience, but overall more people are going to see ‘Noel’ than might normally be the case for a low-budget movie.”

At least four major chains, including Loews Cineplex, the dominant player in the New York City, have declined to book “Noel.”

“We are concerned about the release of the film to television so closely following the theatrical release,” said Kurt Hall co-CEO of the Regal Entertainment Group, which operates the Union Square and Battery Park City megaplexes.

Arnold said that while Regal might not be showing the movie, 600 of its theaters will distribute CDs promoting the release of “Noel.”

David Poland, editor of the moviecitynews Web site, said: “This may well be the wave of the future. The cost of releasing a movie is now so expensive, it makes sense to release it in theaters at the same time as on DVD to get the maximum bang out of your advertising budget.

“But the unfortunate part,” he continued, “is that this isn’t a movie with major marketable elements, so we probably won’t know if this works.”

When “Noel” premiered at the Toronto Film Festival in September, it received devastating reviews in the trade press.

Variety called it a “bad TV movie” that “goes down like sour eggnog,” while the Hollywood Reporter dismissed it as “achingly maudlin.”