- If I’m going to be spending more time at home watching movies, I guess it’s time I finally invest in a truly magnificent home theater. Via.
Today in movie studios’ half-witted attempts to make themselves obsolete: They’re moving forward as quickly as they can to cut theaters out of movie-going equation. The New York Times has a solid rundown of the fallout from an FCC ruling that allows studios to stream copy-protected movies directly to your TV. For now, the plan is to have movies available on-demand shortly after they premiere in theaters, but I’m guessing that token delay won’t last long. The CliffsNotes version:
Right now, theaters get an exclusive period—120 days, on average—to serve up new movies. Then the releases appear on television video-on-demand services at a price of about $4.99. Armed with the new copy-blocking technology, studios want to offer new movies on video-on-demand services about 45 days after they arrive in theaters, for a premium price of $24.99.
On one hand, it’s easy to see where studios are coming from: They see a revenue source that isn’t being tapped, so—just like all of us when we see something we want that isn’t being tapped—they want to go after that shit.
On the other hand, it’s like my urologist always tells me: Just ’cause someone something can be tapped doesn’t necessarily mean you should tap it.
Granted, I don’t know shit about business—but I can’t be the only one who sees this as being pretty short-sighted, right? The power major studios wield at this point is twofold: Their ability to finance expensive films, and their ability to distribute them to every multiplex in the world. But most major studios have already started to split and share production costs of big pictures with smaller investors. And if studios are intent on reducing theaters’ roles in their distribution plans, that takes away even more of their sway. If you’re a filmmaker, and assuming you’re not making something that’s ungodly expensive—like, say, Transformers 3 or something—what’s the point of going through a big studio if, ultimately, they’re just going to offer you the same VOD distribution that smaller studios like IFC already focus on?
So studios might lose some of their importance in the long-term from this, but so it goes: Go ahead, fuckers, dig your own graves! Castrate your distribution model, release “copy-protected” VOD stuff that’ll no doubt be pirated all over the place, and stop shoving stuff like this at me in the meantime.
But movie theaters, I suspect, are the ones really getting the shaft here. Don’t get me wrong: No matter how accessible films get, and no matter how slick our 1080p TVs are, people still like to leave the house and do stuff, and going to movies—even stupid ones about stupid owls—is a fun, easy way for us to leave our filthy homes and briefly forget about how crappy our lives are. I think theaters will always be around, even as actually going to them becomes more and more of a novelty. That said, the rise of VOD will no doubt affect the revenues of both first- and second-run theaters, probably in a pretty major way. I won’t be sad to see obnoxious, expensive places like Regal Cinemas take that hit, but it does bum me out that theaters like the Laurelhurst, the Roseway, the Academy, and more will likely see less money coming in because people can get these films earlier and easier at home.
$24.99 for a one-time view movie?! Who is going to pay that in lieu of a torrent?
Perhaps you should ask why people spend that much now in theaters with torrents readily available?
There’s no comparison between a movie on the big screen and a movie on my laptop screen. I gladly pay to go to the theater but I’m not paying out the ass to watch what I already could for free on my shitty laptop.
Some people have TVs.
I forget about that.
As long as there’s second-runs, I’ll be a happy camper.
This is a welcome change. However I don’t think this will take away business from mega-theaters in any meaningful way. The 45 day cap is still pretty generous to get movies through a product distribution life cycle. What this does is add in an additional distribution stage for premium priced VOD. When you take into account modern home theater equipment, average family size, and the price of admission to major theaters – this is going to be a great deal for family films. I think if you were paying for more than 2 tickets, that would be your breakeven point to use this option (assuming 1 drink per and other concessions).
Any movie I see these days in a theater is usually on opening weekend. If it’s not good enough for opening weekend, then I’m willing to wait for it to come to Netflix. When I go to see a movie, it’s because I want to leave the house (in these cases I usually go somewhere that I can also get beer).
I’d have to look at ticket sales data, but not knowing anything about the business I’d assume that a purchase for first run movies occurs predominantly in the first two weeks at a theater. I would also assume that movies that see sales increases sustain, or increase, after a 45 day mark are probably: 1) rare and 2) have created a buzz factor which would draw theater goers in regardless of premium priced VOD. I think most movie goers are purchasing the movie going experience, rather than the movie. In fact, I remember looking at % of Americans who actually attend movies in a theater, and the % was actually quite small. To me, theaters are packaging an experience and the movies themselves are an advertisement for their core product: concessions.
Tl;dr: this seems like a new distribution option for tech savvy consumers and it shortens the distribution lifecycle for films, but it does not seem like a game changer for theaters.
Good call on the family angle. Again, things I don’t have I tend to discount. That’s actually a very good argument.
LOL–Armed with the new copy-blocking technology (Broken already).
Lets see the majors have just killed the rental profit stream, now they kill the movie houses profit stream, then they ask for corporate welfare from the government in the form of a subsidy from the sale of every tv screen, mp3 player, and computer. In ten years they will be as successful as broadcast radio and landline telephones.