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Hollywood Pushing for iTunes to Rent Major Films Just Weeks After They Debut in Theaters

jhfenton said:
If by the sticks, you mean the middle of Cincinnati, sure. Tickets for Dunkirk tomorrow (Saturday) range from $6.55 (early bird) to $11.75 (adult prime time). That's for a normal screen with reserved seats in "Luxury Loungers." XD screens are $2 more. Real 3D is a few $ more on top of that. Parking is free. We do buy popcorn: $7? But we always bring in our own drinks and candy. (When they start searching bags, we will stop going.)




That sounds similar to Cincinnati prices.

Pricing for PVOD will be tough considering online pricing has to be uniform (at least by country), whereas physical movie theatre pricing varies so widely.
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Cincinnati is hardly a "major" city. A city yes, but definitely not one of the big, expensive ones. Not everyone lives in the midwest or south. Movie prices are easily $14 - $18 on the east and west coast and that's not even counting the stupid 3D charges.
 
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Regardless of all the moaning about the pricing. This is, in my opinion, the death kneel of the last standing, community-based, brick and mortar venues (bookstores, apparel stores, ...)

Who would have predicted this at the outset of the research-based, Internet in the last century?
 
opeter said:
Well, if you watch the money with 10 or more of your friends (or your whole neiborhood), than it seems okay. ;)

50 $ is out of this earth.
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I think this would be relative to where you live. Right now, if I go to one of the second tier theaters, a matinee is $10 a ticket. So that is $20 for me and the wife. If we go to a non matinee showing the ticket price, depending on the theater, tier 1 for instance, start at $16.50-$25, tier 2 would be a few dollars cheaper. So two tickets could cost you $50. If I could get a first run movie days after it is released in the theater, invite some family and friends over to my home theater. I would do this in a heart beat.

IMAX
Harkin
Cinadrome
ArcLight Hollywood
iPic
Landmark

I am sure I am missing some, are all very nice and considered "high end" theaters which have a premium movie ticket price.

Being able to press pause, supply our own food, which is another cost savings, and enjoy it without having to worry about someone else interfering with my experience. To me that is worth it. Do I go to a lot of movies, not really. But I go enough to where I could justify this price tag.
 
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First question: Who still has sub $9 movie ticket prices? For the two of us, it's over $50 for the show, and 'necessities'.

Maybe this will encourage HollyWeird to make better movies? One could hope.
 
I can go see a movie for $10-$12 most days. Tuesdays and Thursdays my local theaters have $5 tickets. Plus bringing a can of pop and a snack in isn't too difficult. So yea $30... no! $50......... HELL NO!
 
I think this is a great idea, for people with big families this is a no brainer.
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hallrac said:
I can go see a movie for $10-$12 most days. Tuesdays and Thursdays my local theaters have $5 tickets. Plus bringing a can of pop and a snack in isn't too difficult. So yea $30... no! $50......... HELL NO!
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It's not for you, it's for families
 
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jhfenton said:
If by the sticks, you mean the middle of Cincinnati, sure. Tickets for Dunkirk tomorrow (Saturday) range from $6.55 (early bird) to $11.75 (adult prime time). That's for a normal screen with reserved seats in "Luxury Loungers." XD screens are $2 more. Real 3D is a few $ more on top of that. Parking is free. We do buy popcorn: $7? But we always bring in our own drinks and candy. (When they start searching bags, we will stop going.)


Married with two teenagers here. I still think $50 is absurd.
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Sorry to break it to you, but Cincinnati is a tiny city compared to Chicago, NY, LA, London, etc. Those cities are much larger markets, ergo, any service like this will be targeted at those moviegoers. Anyhow, even for you (11.75 x 4 + 7) the math makes sense, assuming you have a decent TV setup. And you're doing it on the cheap with free parking (not available in big cities) and minimal food (and breaking the rules on outside food). So it doesn't work for you, fine, but don't pretend that everyone who goes to the movies does it your way.
 
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I would happily pay this. I despise going to the movies. Being able to watch the movie in my own home. Yes please. Being able to watch it early enough that my friends who went to the theater still want to talk about it. Yes again. Let's make this happen Hollywood.
 
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D.T. said:
Hahaha, every time an article is posted about first run movies (aka, new releases / pre-home-video) being offered at a price $25-50 there's a bunch of ZOMG, I'd never pay $50 for a movie and the more reasonable responses that make it clear, this _can_ be, depending on your situation, a better deal financially, and even at a "break-even-or-more", it might be better if you want, for example, better seating/ability to pause/[good] adult beverages/no travel /no parking/etc.
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Well a lot of us don't see $25-$50 as a deal. I can go see movies on Tuesdays and Thursdays for $5 a ticket! Take a friend or my girlfriend at its still only $10 and this is for a giant curved screen with great sound and leather reclining chairs too! Yes this is nice for the Brady Bunch family, but not for most. It will also encourage A LOT more piracy!
 
As a father of 3, a consumer, and a technology buff, this is not appealing. $50 to own a movie in the cloud on a proprietary format is not attractive at all. Nor $30 as they claim.

I would much rather wait the few months and buy the movie for $15-$22 which typically includes the DVD, the Bluray, and a digital copy.

For those of you who don't have kids, us parents gladly plop $25 for a Disney disc or similar kids movie because the kids will watch it 500 times. They can watch it upstairs, downstairs, bring it on vacation, in the car, etc. The disc cannot magically refuse to play or get corrupted or stop playing because my "account" is messed up or some cloud company goes out of business or some non-physical problem.

We've also been burned a few times by paying $5 to rent a movie on iTunes only to find that we actually could not watch it within 24 hours (she fell asleep and when she came home after work the next day it was unavailable and another time when the power went out 1/2 way through). Apple told me to go pound pavement. Thanks a lot, Apple.

There are some reasons that the cloud is attractive for movie content. I get it. But I want the darn discs that are far more reliable and cannot magically self-destruct and accounts that can't get messed up and network issues or I didn't pay a bill and they nuked all my movies that I "bought" or I need to update AppleTV yet again or update iTunes or sign-in problems. The list is a mile long.
 
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Let's look at some numbers (I'm based in the UK so I'm assuming $50 = £50 taking all taxes and exchange rate into account based on the US and UK cost of a $50 Echo Dot and $50 Hue 3rd gen bulb). I've assumed a family of four for each case.

at home option (food/drinks costs based on mysupermarket.com research):
Rental - £50
Sodas - £2.5 (for 4 litres based on common supermarket multibuy deals)
Popcorn - £4 (for 3 bags of Butterkist based on supermarket prices)
Haribo sweets - £3 (for 3 bags based on supermarket prices)
Total - £59.50

Cinema option (concession prices):
Cineworld family ticket (2 adults / 2 children) - £34-£45 (location dependent)
Sodas - £9 for 4 medium cups
Popcorn - £13.80 for 3 boxes (1 for adults and one each for children)
Pick n mix sweets - £8.25 for 3 'regular candy'
Total - £65.05-76.05 (location dependent)

The Cinema option doesn't take into account any parking/transport charges, 'eating out' costs which typically are associated with family trips to the cinema and of course the time and hassle of getting to and from the cinema. So the costing is not so ridiculous as it first appears. The benefits get even bigger if the rental window remains at 24 h so the film can be re-watched if desired.

Of course, in the UK we have BOGOF on Tuesday/Wednesdays for a lot of people but I think families normally go to the cinema at the weekends.
 
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jonnysods said:
$50 is still cheaper than taking my family to the movies. And I can watch the movie in my undies. Last time I did that I was banned from the cinema for a year.
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Come on..... had you done that in a Deadpool movie it would have been acceptable... but ... the SpongeBob Movie?! There are kids in there! :)
 
I would do this in a heart beat.

I still think theaters will do well. There is still a draw to getting out of the house, or going on a date, or kids getting out of the house to hang, etc. a lot of people won't pay 50 bucks. And for many, myself included, being in a huge theater with hundreds of people to enjoy a loud laugh, a scary gasp, an audience cheer, is a draw. (I just don't want to do it all the time and would value choice.)

I think this creates choice. But the movie theaters will fight it fiercely.
 
Let's see... Pay $50 to rent a film at home, 17 days after release... Or, pay $5.88/person for a matinee on a Tuesday, 4 days after release?

This hefty rental plan doesn't stand a chance of succeeding with people who feel GOING TO THE THEATER is part of the experience of seeing a film. Particularly retired folks. Retired guys like me get to see a new film when the noisy kids are in school and the majority of the cell phone cuddling adults are at work.

We have a substantial Blu-ray collection (over 1,200 films) and an above-average home theater setup. And, twice a month, we also convert our garage into the Booth Bijou Garage Theater (seats 24) and entertain our friends with a double feature. I'm VERY serious about home theater. But the day I can no longer go to a large movie theater and see first-run films on a monster screen will be a very sad day indeed.

Films are meant to be EXPERIENCED. And as much as I enjoy watching them again on our 70" and 110" screens, I'll be going to a theater to EXPERIENCE them until my dying days.

Mark
 
coolbreeze said:
People still buy movies? TIL

Once I've seen it, I'm good. Never watch it again, IMO.
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True. I have 96+ movies purchased from the days back when you could find a movie on Apple TV for under $5 (to buy). I stopped buying movies when they were $20+. I'm one of those guys who hits the Target $5 DVDs/Blurays as part of my weekly shopping.

Minus my favorite movies - The Transporter 1,2,3 (1 was the best) - I agree with you. I really don't like re-watching movies. Wall-E was a great one. I can only take Jurassic Park once every few years - and even then it's cheaper to rent those once every few years than just buy them.
 
I would say around 50% of the time the stranger sitting next to me ruins the movie experience. Not to mention not being able to pause the movie to go pee pee after drinking that huge coke I really didn't need in the first place.

I say reduce the theater to a niche market and make online movie watching the prime method of content delivery. Its all going that direction anyway.
 
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vkd said:
I sincerely feel sorry for the poor ignorant souls that will pay these premium prices, obliviously lost to the wind of illusory energy, hopelessly attracted to the worthless gaudy baubles of gross consumerism. Even from a materialistic viewpoint, although technology has made vast advances in recent years, the real quality of the content is proportionately worse.
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Please, tell us which anime you'd pay $50 to see.
 
Mark Booth said:
Films are meant to be EXPERIENCED. And as much as I enjoy watching them again on our 70" and 110" screens, I'll be going to a theater to EXPERIENCE them until my dying days.

Mark
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If inconsiderate <bleeeeeeeeps> didn't ruin that experience, I would agree 100%. I have very fond memories, as a kid, going to the theatres, and watching stuff on the big screen in the 90s. I will always miss those days.
 
johannnn said:
I guess I'm a stupid European, but are talking about a monthly fee like Netflix?
I read it like $50 per movie, but that can't possible be true?
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Yes, $50 per movie. This service isn’t for people trying to watch a movie by themselves, it is for families/friend groups who don’t want to go to the theater.

Think about a family of four, $12 a ticket means you are paying $48 to go to the movie theater, and doesn’t include concessions. This lets you buy a first-run movie and watch/rewatch it, or even show it to friends, so the price isn’t going to match a $20 blu-ray that comes out 6 months later.
 
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Tempting offer, given how often people interrupt my theater experience (texting, talking, loud eating during the movie), but $50 is way to steep.

Just make it a full-price iTunes purchase @ $20-25. I bet more people will purchase more new movies this way than renting or going to the theater.
 
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