I guess I'm old. This isn't for me. If we're talking about all movies at home, then the extremely high premium cost of a new release buys you one, and only one thing. You get to see it sooner. I don't know about the rest of you, but it has been a very long time since I was excited enough about the release of a movie that I would be willing to pay a lot more just to see it a month or two sooner under the exact same setting (IE on my TV).
When you decide to watch a movie at a theater, the only thing that movie has competing with it are the handful of other choices also showing at that theater. That's a pretty low bar. When I choose to watch a movie at home, that movie has.... almost every movie ever made in the history of cinema competing with it. Oh, and thousands of series comprising hundreds of thousands of episodes that all these streaming services are cranking out (some of which are really good, actually).
All in all I think this will backfire on the studios. I don't think I'm the only one that is patient enough to wait a few more weeks before I can buy it digitally on Amazon for less, or watch it when it streams on Netflix or Disney+ or whatever else. What these companies are really wetting their pants about is the thought of fragmenting the streaming services as much as possible, like back in the day when a Cable TV bill would be hundreds of dollars if you paid for all the premium movie channels (HBO, Showtime, Starz, Cinemax, on and on). That's why every other company has launched their own premium streaming service. Let's hope most of them fail.
Just wait a few years without watching a new movie (like, say, in a pandemic).
Then all the "new" movies to you are several years old, so they cost much less, are out on the formats/service you want and you don't have to fight families who "must see" that movie on the first day.
To be awake is to be alive. -- Henry David Thoreau, in "Walden"
Not for me (Score:2)
I guess I'm old. This isn't for me. If we're talking about all movies at home, then the extremely high premium cost of a new release buys you one, and only one thing. You get to see it sooner. I don't know about the rest of you, but it has been a very long time since I was excited enough about the release of a movie that I would be willing to pay a lot more just to see it a month or two sooner under the exact same setting (IE on my TV).
When you decide to watch a movie at a theater, the only thing that movie has competing with it are the handful of other choices also showing at that theater. That's a pretty low bar. When I choose to watch a movie at home, that movie has.... almost every movie ever made in the history of cinema competing with it. Oh, and thousands of series comprising hundreds of thousands of episodes that all these streaming services are cranking out (some of which are really good, actually).
All in all I think this will backfire on the studios. I don't think I'm the only one that is patient enough to wait a few more weeks before I can buy it digitally on Amazon for less, or watch it when it streams on Netflix or Disney+ or whatever else. What these companies are really wetting their pants about is the thought of fragmenting the streaming services as much as possible, like back in the day when a Cable TV bill would be hundreds of dollars if you paid for all the premium movie channels (HBO, Showtime, Starz, Cinemax, on and on). That's why every other company has launched their own premium streaming service. Let's hope most of them fail.
Re: (Score:3)
That's a foregone conclusion. The balkanization of streaming has revived Bittorrent usage greatly, or so I've read.
Re: (Score:2)
Just wait a few years without watching a new movie (like, say, in a pandemic).
Then all the "new" movies to you are several years old, so they cost much less, are out on the formats/service you want and you don't have to fight families who "must see" that movie on the first day.