My brother is an investment banker focusing on media companies, which is where I got this theory from. He travels all over and meets with media companies who throw out all these ideas of how media will be changing in the future. One thing he told me a couple weeks ago and I see catching on with Apple TV and all of iTunes is the idea of immediate release movies. These are movies that are released to the public online at the same time as they are released to the theatre.
Going to the movies is over $10/person in most areas and as technology has been advancing, watching movies at home has become almost as good as watching in a theatre. The idea would be releasing the movie via download or streaming for say $50 or so and you can watch it at home instead of going to the movies. Yes, it sounds expensive to see a movie one time, but think about if you have young children and you'd either have to get a babysitter or bring them to the movie with you. It's a hassle and it gets expensive anyways. After you have 3 or 4 people going to the movie, that would be between $40-50 anyways, so you would break even. Factor in the prices for popcorn ($6 at a movie theatre, $0.50 at home) and the point of this is made even more. I could also see myself being stranded in an airport with my girlfriend and paying the $50 to watch a movie on my iPhone. If you factor in the fact that people now pay for music when you can download it for free, it's really not that far fetched. For a good amount of people, time is more valuable then money.
My theory is that I see Apple picking up on this technology before anyone else. My question to you is, would you like seeing something like this as an option to the traditional movie theatre experience or is the fact of being in the theatre more valuable then the convenience of being at home?
Going to the movies is over $10/person in most areas and as technology has been advancing, watching movies at home has become almost as good as watching in a theatre. The idea would be releasing the movie via download or streaming for say $50 or so and you can watch it at home instead of going to the movies. Yes, it sounds expensive to see a movie one time, but think about if you have young children and you'd either have to get a babysitter or bring them to the movie with you. It's a hassle and it gets expensive anyways. After you have 3 or 4 people going to the movie, that would be between $40-50 anyways, so you would break even. Factor in the prices for popcorn ($6 at a movie theatre, $0.50 at home) and the point of this is made even more. I could also see myself being stranded in an airport with my girlfriend and paying the $50 to watch a movie on my iPhone. If you factor in the fact that people now pay for music when you can download it for free, it's really not that far fetched. For a good amount of people, time is more valuable then money.
My theory is that I see Apple picking up on this technology before anyone else. My question to you is, would you like seeing something like this as an option to the traditional movie theatre experience or is the fact of being in the theatre more valuable then the convenience of being at home?
