Movies: Serious question.

[revelated]

Am I just...not getting it? Honest answer, no smart alec comments.

Because the way I see it the movie production companies don't get it. It's like, they fight tooth and nail against digital distribution. Then they adopt it but they put stuff in your way. Then they want to charge the same price for the digital copy as the physical copy, yet years and years and they constantly say that the cost of packaging, shipping, etc is included. Well, if there is no distribution, no shipping, no packaging, why is the price still the same? Then they get mad that people go and pick up the DVD from the bargain bin for $5 and rip it to their own drive so that they can have the digital copy without being raped over the coals.

Additionally, it seems like the rental market is stale. They don't get it either. They hold out on the physical media and the streaming media until MONTHS after the movie's theater release. Why not include a discount price for the DVD as part of the price of admission, sell them right there in the theater for those who saw the movie, liked it and want to buy it right away? For blockbusters like Avatar could you imagine the dollars made? Then sell the Blu-ray 3 months or whatever later for the holdouts. Streaming rentals...they want to charge bucks for renting a movie and you can only re-watch it in 24 hours once you've started it. Well, what if I start it, have to take care of something that takes two days? I now no longer can. Versus the rental stores where they at least gave you 7 days which was plenty of time. What's worse, the rental stores were cheaper by a wide margin.

Also, am I alone in feeling like, if you're going to give me a 24 hour rental, charge me a buck and I'll be all over it. Even $2 would be fair. But I've seen movies like Lord of the Rings where they want like $10 to rent the standard def version for 24 hours? Come on.

I mean am I missing something here?

 

[iStudentUK]

Movie companies have to work with Cinemas with regards to DVD releases. I remember a story about Disney upsetting cinemas by saying they will release the DVD something like 6 weeks later, many threatened not to show Disney films anymore. I can see why, cinemas want an opportunity to make their money, I have no objection to waiting 6 months for the DVD release.

I do agree with you about digital distribution practices though. I'm glancing at iTunes now and a film like 'The Social Network' which is ~£10 (~$15), and the same on Amazon. Except Amazon is the 2-disc edition, which could be ripped onto my MB and give me a DRM free digital copy and the physical one. No brainer! iTunes are asking ~£3.49 (~6$) for renting, which seems very high. Even more if I want HD (especially as iTunes HD is a bit of a joke).

The movie companies have always been slow to adapt, just like the music industry (home taping is killing music anyone?). The irony is, I think if they offered digital downloads at half the price of DVDs and DRM free they would get back some of the market they have lost to torrenting!

 

[anjinha]

I understand completely. It's very frustrating. I am very willing to acquire movies legally (either for rent or purchase) and actually do it very often. But it is very annoying when it's easier for me to get a pirated copy than to actually pay for it.

With my last laptop my SuperDrive wasn't working. So for me to watch movies I'd have to get them in digital form so I'd watch them either through Netflix or iTunes.

Pulp Fiction? Not available on either one.
500 Days of Summer? Not available on either one.
Sleeper? Not available on either one.
Lone Star? Not available on either one.

Not only that but very often movies I wanted weren't available for rental.

Hello, movie companies?? I am trying to give you money!!

Then there's the DRM. It doesn't bother me that much that I can only play a movie on a limited number of computers. What does bother me is that I can't stream the movies I PURCHASED and now OWN from MY computer to MY iPad because of the DRM.

Movie companies have a serious problem when they manage to make pirating a more attractive option than legally acquiring something. DRM doesn't prevent pirates, it only bothers the people actually paying for content.

 

[LethalWolfe]

Part of the problem is it's not just the movie studios. It's also the movie distributors, movie theaters, movie rentals (physical), movie rentals (streams), video on demand, movies on network TV, movies on cable TV, movies for sale (physical), and movies for sale (streams/downloads). Also, multiple that by a few dozen countries.

It's convoluted as hell and evolved into it's current state over the past century or so so it's not realistic to expect it to change course on a dime and adapt to a completely different business model over night, IMO. I'm not saying things couldn't be going better, but for a number of reasons it's not as simple as most people seem to think it is.


Lethal

 

[(marc)]

Seconded. Record companies are really similar. When browsing YouTube, I often find videos I can't watch because "it contains content from UMG / EMI / Sony". Record companies don't seem to understand that having a cool video with their music in it is free, highly efficient advertisement.
I guess we'll have to wait a few more years until all those companies finally understand that the market has changed...

 

[0388631]

You guys forget these companies are led by dinosaurs who really don't understand how people are because their minds are infested with multiple dollar signs.

 

[blairh]

The current state of home movie distribution is a complete mess. Movie studios have made billions off DVD sales and they had little to worry about (other than pirating, which will always be an issue).

But technology has changed the manner in which we watch films, and studios are having a very difficult time figuring out how to adapt.

This especially rings true when you want to purchase a film. If you are cool with optical discs in 2011, then buying DVDs and BDs is of course still an option. But digitally things man no sense right now.

I personally am done with owning physical media. All my movies are ripped to an external drive. So what are my options for wanting to purchase new movies in HD? iTunes? I can't swallow the DRM component knowing that there is a limit to how I can use the media I plan to own and use for many years to come. Torrents? Sure, but I feel super shady doing so.

DRM simply needs to be stripped from iTunes movies for things to progress forward. DRM doesn't stop piracy, it only makes more people use torrents. I'd also like to see some iTunes movie competitors (for purchasing HD movies, DRM free of course). Otherwise right now things are a mess.

(And forget ripping BDs, unless you really want to. That requires compression (unless you have huge storage), and the fact that Macs by default are not Blu-ray compatible so you'll need to get an external BD drive, etc. Ugh.)