A few months back, I was asked to take a survey online about a 'company' that was in the process of rolling out a Video On Demand system that allowed you to rent movies while they were still in the theatre, but that's the last I heard about it, until now.
According to insiders, Warner Bros., Fox, Sony and Universal are all on board with DirectTV to roll out this service by late next month, with Comcast and VUDU following close behind. The movies will be available for $29.99, 60 days after the theatre release date. The current standard is twice that.
Theatre owners are concerned that this availability will hurt their bottom line. On Wednesday, the National Association of Theatre Owners (NATO) released an open letter criticizing this deal. Some of the big names that have signed this letter are, Michael Bay, James Cameron, Guillermo del Torro and Peter Jackson.
Personally, I'm all for the VOD options, especially being a movie blogger. There are just too many movies to see, way too many, and the cost to see a movie in the theatre is crazy! The article that I'm getting my information from says that the average cost of a movie ticket is $8.00?!?! I'd sincerely like to know where whoever wrote that article is going to see their movies. Where I live, there is one theatre where you can see a movie for $8.00. It only has 4 screens, drastically cutting down on the variety of movies they are able to show at any given time. Besides that, the concessions are very very limited, and the chairs are extremely uncomfortable.
My boyfriend and I prefer to go to our local AMC theatre when we want to go see a movie. The tickets cost $13.00 each, and another $5.00 each if we want to see something in 3D or IMAX. On top of that, my boyfriend CANNOT go to a movie without getting popcorn and a drink. That's another $8.00 or so. Plus, we don't drive, therefore we're looking at a $20.00 cab ride, each way. So we're looking at easily $70 to $80 for one movie for us. So the $29.99 price tag for VOD movies is looking pretty nice to me. If we were to see 3 movies on demand rather than going to the theatre, we've saved $120.00. That's enough to see 4 more movies on demand, but would only cover 1 more trip to the theatre.
The Studios are definitely looking at their bottom line, and I personally think they're on to something. For me, what inevitably ends up happening, is we see 'the epics', as I like to call them in the theatre. Clash of the Titans, Avatar, Fast and Furious, Inception and Alice in Wonderland to name a few. But the dramas, romances and romantic comedies get left out, partially because when we go out to the movies as a couple, we try to see something we're both going to enjoy for the money we spend. That automatically rules out a lot for my man. Also, because there are so many movies released each year our theatre going decisions are based on whether a movie has enough special effects to be worth seeing on the big screen. So in the end, most of the movies that I as a woman, and a hopeless romantic, am interested in seeing end up being put on the back burner, waiting until they come out on DVD or sometimes even waiting til they air on television. This leads to me missing a lot of movies that I wanted to see altogether.
This is how I see this going for my household when and if this service becomes available where I live. Movies franchises like, Batman, Superman, Transformers, Star Trek, Pirates of the Caribbean, etc. will always be theatre going experiences for us. There's just no way to get the same experience from watching it at home. But upcoming movies that I'm looking forward to seeing like, The Help, The Tree of Life, and Crazy Stupid Love will be every bit as enjoyable to watch from the comfort of my own couch on our 42" flat-screen TV.
Apparently, Theatre owners are planning to retaliate by limiting their movie's trailers and in-building signage. Um, have you guys heard of imdb.com and youtube.com? I really don't think that's going to have the impact they're looking for. The way see it, the studios have gone to a lot of legal trouble to get as far as they have with this plan, and the theatre owners are just mad that they succeeded.
What do you think about this deal? Do you think there's room for negotiation between the studios and theatre companies? Will you pay $29.99 to watch a movie at home 60 days after the theatre release?
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