No thanks! What's the point? 3-4 months after the release I'll get the blu-ray for less money and it's mine as opposed to what 2 months later for a one time use and likely less quality? Studios really want to milk us for all they can.
No thanks! What's the point? 3-4 months after the release I'll get the blu-ray for less money and it's mine as opposed to what 2 months later for a one time use and likely less quality? Studios really want to milk us for all they can.
I agree with you for the most part, but there are a few movies that I would have paid extra to get early (LOTR trilogy).
-Comes out the same time as theaters.
-1080p
-lossless 5.1 audio
-can be viewed all day
It wouldn't be hard to get a few people together to chip in for it and the experience would be much better than a theater.
No thanks! What's the point? 3-4 months after the release I'll get the blu-ray for less money and it's mine as opposed to what 2 months later for a one time use and likely less quality? Studios really want to milk us for all they can.
Of course they want to milk us. That's their job.
Just like we want to milk them. That's our job. Look at all the 'it's cheaper here, the price just dropped there' threads all over this place.
We try to get the most product for our money and they try to get the most money for their product.
Being the father of a small child makes it difficult to go to see a movie, I love this idea. Despite many movies I would have like to go see, I have not made it to a cinema since February.
I live in Las Vegas , where two of the Best Buys here and one in Chicago are currently doing a complete remodel to be the first three stores in the company that virtually diccontinue selling blu rays,dvds and cds with the exception of a very select few new releases,they have eliminated thousands of titles.the company is going to start pushing the downloading of music and movies through Best Buy,I think it's a big mistake,and personally I hope the people here speak up like I have and do everytime I go in the store because these 3 stores are going to be testruns to see how many more will be overhauled,and if things go well,all stores will be overhauled like the 3 model stores.
Ah, so that explains what Best Buy's up to. Discs are about the only reason I go into their stores any more.
Guess the big guys have their hearts set on gouging us for downloads and crappy DVD-Rs. Neither of which are ever going to be much more than little blips on my radar. The sky must really be falling after all.
Hollywood is cooking up a batch of proposals for hastening the release of pay-per-view movies, and that could prove heavenly for coupon-clippers.
Theater operators hate any narrowing of their traditional release window, but DVD retailers could be hurt worse if consumers are able to watch films on their TVs more quickly than on disc. So under one idea under consideration, those paying $25-$50 to watch a movie on their cable or satellite PPV service would qualify for a coupon redeemable at disc retailers for a free DVD of the same title.
"There's been some discussion of that as a way to calm retailer fears," Adams Media Research's Tom Adams said Tuesday. "The other reason for doing it is that they would be asking consumers to spend a lot of money for the initial rental."
Dubbed "premium video-on-demand," the accelerated-release plan has been mulled by execs at most of the studios during the past year and also could include Internet-based VOD. (PPV and VOD are essentially interchangeable terms, though the former tends to indicate cable-delivered content.)
There's an outside chance that one of the most aggressive studios -- meaning Disney or Warner Bros. -- might experiment with premium VOD by year's end, but most expect the first rifle shot in a sure-to-escalate war of nerves to come in the first quarter. There's mixed opinion whether it will be fired Stateside or somewhere else, perhaps Canada.
For years, exhibitors have fought any encroachment on the traditional theatrical window, a roughly four-month span between a movie's release and its debut in home video. The VOD window lagged the DVD/Blu-ray Disc window until studios recently began releasing some or all of their home-entertainment titles simultaneously on disc and VOD, citing studies showing minimal impact on consumers' willingness to buy discs.
But the premium VOD plan would be even more jarring for traditional home-entertainment retailers, whose partnership with Hollywood is projected to register $16.1 billion in DVD and Blu-ray sales and rentals in the U.S. this year. The corresponding reaction from retailers also could be dramatic.
After all, would Wal-Mart help Paramount Home Entertainment move hundreds of thousands of copies of "Iron Man 2" this week if customers of In Demand -- the three-way venture of Comcast, Time Warner Cable and Cox -- were able to watch the movie via VOD?
Now consider that five mega-merchants -- Wal-Mart, Target, Best Buy, Costco and Amazon -- control about 60% of the DVD market, and the prospects of a major blowup over premium VOD would seem at least equally as likely in the retail community as among theater operators.
Given the market sensitivities, some suggest the first experiment with premium VOD will be with a non-tentpole release made available not 30 days after the film's theatrical opening but 60.
"The 30 days proposal may be getting thrown around so that there will be a sense of relief when something shorter is tried," a exhibition insider said. "But even 60 days still would be too short."
Indeed, even less dramatic moves by studios have triggered big blowback. The nation's three largest circuits pulled Sony's "Cloudy With a Chance of Meatballs" from theaters last year after Sony released the animated comedy on disc 88 days after its theatrical bow.
Meantime, studios approach release windows from a dizzying array of perspectives. For instance, though all other studios release most DVD titles either simultaneously on VOD or within several days of their disc "street date," Sony clings to an average 33-day interval between disc release and VOD as its movies skew more heavily to the rental market.
At Warner Home Video, execs are more sales-minded and thus refuse to give dollar-rental operations movies for their first month on disc, a policy emulated by a handful of other studios. Yet Warners -- though no longer connected to Time Warner Cable -- is among those most bullish on premium VOD.
"We simply don't believe there will be any cannibalized disc sales as a result of a carefully approached premium VOD window," a Warners insider said.
Several versions of premium VOD are being discussed with cable operators. Under one plan, consumers would have to pay a whopping $50 to see a movie just a month after its theatrical release, or $25 after two months.
Yet the question remains: If the idea of consumer coupons does assuage home-ent retailers, what to do about theater operators?
"There's not a lot you can do, other than to say at four weeks into a film's theatrical run they're not doing much business anyway," Adams said. "But the counter argument from the theater owners is that you are demotivating people from going to the theater at all, as opposed to just waiting to watch the movies in their homes. So you might have to give the theaters a bigger split of the boxoffice, maybe a couple more percentage points."
Whatever strategy develops, studios are certain to limit the premium service to owners of high-def TVs after an FCC ruling allowing studios to disable the recording capability of such sets. Older televisions --- including even some first-generation HDTVs -- would not be included in premium VOD plans, as their recording capability cannot be disabled.
"They're playing with fire for what's a very small market right now," an exhibition insider mused. "If they do it, there will be a big reaction."
Being the father of a small child makes it difficult to go to see a movie, I love this idea. Despite many movies I would have like to go see, I have not made it to a cinema since February.
I have for quite some time believed that when the technology was available this was our future. I think complete conversion to movie media consumption in this manner is about 9-14 years away possibly 14-19. I am not simply stating this will replace Blu; it will replace Blu, whatever comes after Blu and theater chains. Not all of them will go out business but most will. Today we can build a home theater to rival or surpass theater chains, home theater set-ups and tech is only going to get cheaper. I saw a Samsung Plasma TV @ BB Sat that was $1500, that price was scratched out for $699. Tech is getting more sophisticated, look at all the things you can do on your Plasma, LCD or LED now that you could not do 4 or 5 yrs ago. Apps, Youtube, email, weather alerts and streaming is available already with some movies and TV shows in HD, once the tech is in place for uninterrupted HD streaming with audio to match, game over.
When the studios get a price model down, the next, next reboot of Batman or whatever series is hot at the time will be released directly to consumers. Potentially, consumers ordering to view first run digital releases at home could pay any where from $10 - $20 per request. Today a movie gets released, after four to six months it gets released on Blu. That flow of viewing movies will vanish. In the future you could order a first run digital release of War machine at home, once the number of orders diminish (similar to a movie being #1 opening weekend then dropping) the movie will be removed from Netflix or wherever for the next four – six months until it gets released for a nominal fee for rental or purchase price or whatever price structure is in place at the time. This will render theater chains, Blockbuster, and Red Box jurassic! Gone, is the consumption of tangible media! If you don’t believe it look at iTunes the model is already in place, how many of us still purchase CD’s, if you don’t when was the last time you bought one? Red Box should look at BB as being their future if they don’t look to the future they will become obsolete.
Studios doing this is just natural progression, again look to iTunes, it has revolutionized how we buy music, tech these days is more and more sophisticated and always moving forward, ALWAYS. I was told once the day you bring home new gear it’s already 6-12 months old.
Well in the UK it's not that cheap either, but it doesn't seemed to be as much as the US.
I don't think many would take this option over the theatre or DVD/Blu-ray, because of how impractical it is.
It was $15 a ticket for Avatar IMAX 3D where I am and I think that may be one of the cheaper prices in the US. Then add in popcorn, candy and drink for 3 or 4 people & it can reach $75 or more.
Even spending that much I don't think I would use a service like this. It feels like I would be getting ripped off to a point. While I don't always enjoy the hassle of the movie theaters there is still something about the experience of watching and getting the reaction of a large group of people. If it's not something I am willing to go to the theater for then I'd wait an extra month or 2 for the DVD/Blu-ray then use this service.
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