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Movie Burning Kiosks Coming To Retailers
Vitaly Friedman writes "The motion picture industry is in talks with some major retailers about installing DVD burning kiosks in stores. It's an interesting idea, but one that almost entirely misses the point. Hollywood's movie distribution system is in dire need of a fix - very few will dispute that. Movie attendance has been suffering, DVD sales are slumping, and all the industry has managed to do is come up with a half-baked, unpopular download service and a scant handful of simultaneous releases. In another attempt to sort of give consumers what they want, the motion picture industry is thinking about allowing retailers to set up in-store kiosks for distribution."
...something that:
* Will last much less time than a standard DVD before failing
* Not play in all of my DVD players
* Mean I have to wait around for it to finish burning
* Probably cost as much, or more than, a regular DVD
I won't, that's the answer to that. Get with it Hollywood, you need to offer movies to download at a significantly discounted price, or with no DRM. Offering me less for more, which is what you try to do at every step, doesn't make me want to give you my hard-earned cash.
Hollywood found out they can sell you a product that self destructs.
FTFA: Retailers are concerned that digital downloads might spell an end to the sale of DVDs, and see the download-to-burn kiosks as a way to keep them in the DVD business.
If only could they realize they gotta adapt instead of run hacks to keep the good ol' days.
There weren't plenty of typing machine manifacturers that started making keybaords and mice as well I think. They just tried to keep the old ways and ceased to exist.
For a second, I thought this had something to do with the proper disposal of movies like Battlefield Earth...
Blearf. Blearf, I say.
How is this better than buying the DVDs as one does now? You get to wait in the store for the DVD to be created, and pretend that it's more convenient than picking it off the shelf?
Now that Skype offers free calls to US numbers until the end of the year, why not drop the MPAA a line and let them know what's on your mind? Maybe we can all check in on them daily and thank them for their efforts!
Oh, and if you'd be so kind, could you also let them know that The Pirate Bay is back up? They seem to still be under the impression that it's down... (PDF link)
Oh. You might need their numbers:
Washington: (202) 293-1966
LA: (818) 995-6600
New York (listed as their "anti-piracy office"): (914) 378-0800
Hey! When will they learn, that one makes bussines by giving value for money and people will buy it? Why should I download a movie from the movie industries distribution channels if it costs nearly as much as a DVD, I can only watch it on my (non-existing) Windows PC and don't get any bonus material and won't get any nicely done packaging and that nearly for the price of a DVD?
If DVDs are sold for a reasonable price (here in Finland that is definitely not the case), then people buy it. And if the DVD burning kiosk should work, then they need to go down with the prices NOTICEABLE below the price of a DVD.
my 2 eurocent.
- Martin
I already have a movie-burning kiosk in my home.
:)
It's called BitTorrent.
AE
...They should make better movies.
...when are we gonna start seeing book burning kiosks?
I'm sure that the **AA would help Ars Technica with legal proceedings to sue those involved in this "paragraph stealing"
It has been a nervous year, with people beginning to feel like Christian Scientists with appendicitis.
There nothing new here but the quality is shite.
I love stacking my barbecues in the shed at the end of summer - you can't beat a bit of grill on grill action.
Industry insiders describe the kiosk prototypes they have seen as a DVD burning iMac with the browser's homepage set to "http://thepiratebay.org/". This strikes me as an mindblowingly ill-fated idea -- I mean, if I had to drive somewhere to get to the iTunes Music Store, I can't imagine I'd use it. It's all about the American I wannit now impulse.
~jeff
I guess it never occurred to the movie industry that perhaps sales/attendance are slumping because all of the movies they're coming out with these days are (a) expensive and (b) exactly the same as all the other movies for the last N years? "This story line worked before, it'll work again!"
:-P
Thanks, guys.
Ok, so have they not thought this through yet?
Instead of mass-producing a product as cheaply as possible, then charging a relatively large amount for retail purchase, they give the reproduction task to the end retailer.
To the point: cheap burnable consumer DVDs are cheap for a reason, their often crap and are rarely last as long as ones used in DVD reproduction factories.
Sure it's a nice idea, it probably looked good when the marketing guys were presenting it.. But it misses the point!
The reason we have burn-your-own and print-your-own type of services is the ability to customise what you get. In my local Kodak printing shop, I can go in with my xD/SD card, select the photos I want printed and how their scaled/cropped etc. and I'll get them a few hours later on nice glossy photo paper and a CD of all the files for backup.
At home, I burn CDs/DVDs because I can customise what I have on them, perhaps I want System of a Down mixed with Led Zeppelin (hey, it's my choice).
With this.. it's just an exact copy of the disc, not cheaper, not easier to use, will probably last considerably shorter... I can't choose if I want extra scenes, or to cut out the FBI/piracy warnings, or have the star wars theme tune dubbed over it!
And remember folks, without objective criticism we'll end up with crap products and crap ideas, and this whole thing smells of
'Yes men' and end of life product whoring.
From TFA:
"Burning DVDs in stores could happen in 2007," he said, but noted various licensing and technology hurdles still remained.
Technology hurdles? What technology hurdles? The technology is fine, open source (and closed source) software developers have created high speed data transfer protocols, players and burner. As a previous poster said he has a movie burning kiosk in his home, there is no hurdle here.
Main problem, they wont sell the movies for £4 a disk and the only reason you ever paid more than that is for the pretty packaging and inlays, which the kiosk idea's sort of kill
Get with the program guys, stick your entire catalogue on download and charge a few quid a film, watch your market skyrocket.
- DVD-quality downloads. 1GB of H.264-encoded movie should give 'good enough' quality.
- No DRM; I often watch films on my laptop, and I occasionally watch them on a handheld device. Don't tie me to any particular platform.
- Any film or TV series that's been released on DVD.
- Up to 30 downloads a month.
Sure, some people would archive everything they've downloaded, but would the industry lose much from that? I rarely watch a film more than two or three times, and so it wouldn't make much sense; particularly when you can just re-download any film you want.Of course, these films would also end up on peer to peer networks, but at that price it just wouldn't be worth my time and effort to get them illegally.
I don't want any more DVDs. I own fifty or so movies on DVD, but I stopped buying new ones over a year ago. They are simply not worth the money; when I can rent close to thirty for the price of buying one it's only a good investment to buy if I plan on watching it more than thirty times[1].
Sadly, I don't think the movie industry is likely to adopt such a model for quite some time.
[1] The opposite is true for music. Looking through my iTunes library, the vast majority of tracks have a play count of 50-80, making music rental services a very bad financial choice for me.
I am TheRaven on Soylent News
I could imagine that, if done right, it could appeal to niche markets; say, if people would like a film that hasn't seen a DVD run yet (for instance some of the older stuff from the 50s or 60s - great monster flicks) or would like a certain language version that is not normally stocked.
And while we're on the subject of desirables: why should those kiosks just mirror the inventory of the store (which is what the articles seem to imply)? Make it so you can "order up" obscure movies or create compilations and have them ready for burning the next day. In this case I'd see an added value that would make the idea worth implementing, but I fear that in reality those burning stations will only "stock" the latest blockbusters to catch the sales usually lost when a hot selling disk is temporarily out of stock...
-- Language is a virus from outer space.
Hollywood needs to offer movies & TV shows for download.
They need to be:
1.Available (one big reason people pirate, especially for TV shows, is because they cant watch it legally). This includes making stuff that is not currently cost-effective to put onto DVD and distributing and marketing and etc available (the costs of putting all those old TV shows that you just cant get anymore onto an online download service would probobly be negligable other than the inital one-off cost to digitize the shows into a digital master format)
2.Cheap (how cheap depends on how they compare quality/features/extras/etc wise to buying the DVD). Especially what is needed is the abillity to buy single episodes of a TV show (but by the same token, buying a whole season or the whole series should be cheaper than buying each episode seperatly)
3.Non-restrictive (This doesnt necessarily mean DRM free, what it does mean is that it has to be something one can burn onto a DVD or load over a network link or something and watch in full quality on the big expensive home theater setups and NOT something limited to watching on your PC (or iPod for that matter)
4.World-wide (making it US only wont help all the people in other parts of the world downloading from BitTorrent because they cant get the content locally)
and 5.Free of crap. If its ad-supported, it better be free (or very close to it). If it costs money, it should be free of ads, anti-piracy messages, anti-fast-forward locks etc etc.
Before you jump in your SUV and drive 15 miles to that burning kiosk, check out gnutella.
The movie industry needs to realize the horse and buggy distro system has been superceded by an Internet. Funny plastic disks are mostly unecessary.
Can I shout "fire!" in a movie burning kiosk?
But "burned" DVDs have a limited life. They may only last a few years depending on the quality of the DVDs etc. Properly pressed DVDs last nearly forever. How happy will the consumers be when a few years down the track the DVDs stop working?
DVD is certainly having a negative impact on cinemagoing. There are certainly times when you want to go out and see a movie, but in many (most?) cases the difference between watching the movie at home or at a cinema is decreasing. Therefore more people are buying DVDs, and fewer people are going to cinemas.
Whenever I go to a cinema (unfortunately rarely these days), I am subjected to trailers which often show me really cool movies that I then want to go to see. So if I go to one movie, chances are I'll go to a few more in the next few weeks. I'm sure that i'm not alone here (and the advertising industry hopes i'm not too!)
But there aren't compulsory trailers on DVDs (and if there were i would get very pissed off and boycott the DVDs concerned), and so audiences aren't exposed to future movies that they might like. So they are then less likely to continue seeing as many more movies.
How can the movie industry fix this? More, better advertising on TV perhaps. More trailers on DVDs (though if you make these unskippable you WILL piss people off and they'll rent less DVDs because of the annoyance). But the best strategy, if it is possible, is to entice the public back to watching movies at the cinema, probably by lowering prices. Then they'll want to keep seeing more movies at the cinema if the movie's good enough, or otherwise on DVD.
OH, J. S. Christ! Bugger all the geek perspective. I have news for you sparky, not everyone has or wants broadband.
My my, it seemed you just wanted to vent, never mind what I said has nothing to do with your reaction here.
Where did I even mention that everyone should have one?
Not everyone wants their music on a burned disk, or stored on their hard drive. The "old ways" are the old ways because they work for the majority.
Is the pianist at your local mute cinema still working there?
Not some whiney minority who will never be satisfied until everything comes through a wire.
The "minority" of 700 mln people worldwide with Internet connection just want an alternative, not an obliteration of the DVD's as a media.
You'll do this because you'll be in the store buying something else, realize that you have nothing to watch tonight, think of something you want to see, and buy a disc. Cheap, easy, legal, quick.
Stores will do this because while you're waiting for the disc to burn, you'll be doing the rest of your shopping. Maybe you'd planned to run in for one item, but now you're hanging around for 20 minutes, and more likely to think of something else you'll need.
My first thought at the headline was: some software glitch
caused one of those cheesie web kiosks to catch on fire?
Cool.
People will grab things for free that they'd never pay for. It's the hunter-gather mentality.
Looks can be deceiving. Or CAN they?
The motion picture industry's line of thinking (if it can be called that) probably ran something like this:
I'll agree, the idea is an interesting one. And if circumstances were different, I could see it taking off. There are already bands which record the concert live and then sell CDs after the concert. That seems to work fairly well. So yes, there could have been a chance for this model. (I did say that this would be a brief, feeble defense, yes?)
Now, where does this idea really fall flat? Well, the problem as stated is pretty much accurate. (It's solely their problem, but technically, to them, it is a problem.) Although, parsed through the lens of objectivity their problem actually reads, "People aren't paying enough for our movies." Meaning that making money hand-over-fist isn't enough for them, they want to make more money, both hands over three fists, damnit.
The observation is also correct: if the need is great enough and the item is unique enough, there will be someone honest enough to pay nearly any price. (As a corollary, there will also be someone crooked enough to never pay for the thing if there's any chance at all of getting it cheaper or for free elsewhere.) The sales rate to product going out may approach, but will never reach, either 0% or 100%.
I see the biggest problem in the solution, because they're providing a convenient sales mechanism for people who are already using this other sales mechanism, both of which are tanking in the marketplace! If the problem is people not buying DVDs or going to see movies, tying the two of them together is silly! It's like trying to build a flying machine by tying two bricks together.
I could also launch into a diatribe on the cost/benefit analysis of piracy vs. purchasing, but this isn't the place.
You cannot truly appreciate Dilbert until you read it in the original Klingon.
You'll do this because you'll be in the store buying something else, realize that you have nothing to watch tonight, think of something you want to see, and buy a disc. Cheap, easy, legal, quick.
And doesn't involve downloading anywhere in the equation.
In point of fact it won't work like that, because you don't impulse buy because you think of something. You don't think of something you hadn't already intended to buy.
I have one DVD that I bought on impulse, because I saw it in the cheapy bin at the grocery store.
Didn't have to hang around another 20 minutes waiting for it download and burn either. That woulda killed the deal deader than shit. I just grabbed it on my way to the checkout and then went home.
KFG
this is just my subjective impression, but it appears that the sheer numbers of new movies seems to have gone up radically over the past decade or so. There are just so many movies that people want to watch I think, I know I dont care to see so many, certainly not all of them or even close to that. Seems like a long time ago, when a new "big" movie came out it was a relatively big deal, now its like every weekend there are a dozen (whatever) new movies. Same with bands and music for that matter.
Like I said, subjective, I have no actual hard numbers to point at.
As to the kiosks, I think it could be a fine way to do it if the movie plays in anything called a DVD player and if the discs are significantly cheaper than what you get now off the shelf. The main problem is disks need to be around three bucks, not 20 dollars.
*snort* We bought some movies yesterday out weekend yard saling, I got VHS tapes three for a dollar. Thats about the only way I buy movies or music now, used and at a cheap reasonable price. At 20 bucks, I buy zero movies. Under ten dollars I start to think about it, bargain bin new 5 or under I grab a few if I feel like it.
My biggest complaint with renting DVDs is that they're often so scratched that they skip, or not play at all. Having the rental place reburn a DVD from scratch every 5 rentals (or whatever) would solve that problem nicely and cheaply. (I did some back-of-the-envelope calculations at http://www.casualhacker.net/blog/2006/03/dvd-renta ls/ .) I didn't think the studios would go for it, but maybe they will.
Tim
After surveying the couple hundred cable channels I have, and after thinking back several years to the last time I was in a movie threater, I submit that more than 90% of them are:
If you want to editorialize and generalize, write an editorial and submit it. Lord knows /. has enough random people with blogs as news. Don't write a mini-editorial in the submission of a real story, because it's dishonest and, to be frank, quite lame.
I missed this movie "Burning Kiosks". I can't seem to find it in IMDB. When did it come out, and why are we talking about it on /.?
If they want to increase their market share, the movie companies should take that share away from other media, for example, the print media. To that end, I propose that they set up book burning kiosks in video stores world wide.
A republic cannot succeed till it contains a certain body of men imbued with the principles of justice and honour.
All the points above are valid and each will nulify any business plan that Hollywood had planned for this service.
This plan can only work if the films being distributed are:
- Not available from Hollywood. This is great for the thousands of films made in Europe and India that don't get any distribution or review in the USA. The disadvantage of distributing films (or anything in the 'long tail') in this manner is that noone knows which few titles are good, and which of the remaining ones are mediocre.
- Significantly cheaper than the current pre-pressed DVD distribution of blockbusters mode of business. Perhaps an 'eBay'-type of auction for little known titles whereby the highest bid after a day would get the opportunity to pickup the DVD-ROM with the downloaded and formatted film from the video store distribution point. The local video store would get half the auction price for the burning service against a minimum guaranteed price that would be made by the film distributor. Many details need to be worked out, but this major change in business model could work.
Ah, but there's the rub.... It requires a major change in the mentality of the entertainment industry for a major change in the business model to occur. However, we all know that can never happen until they are either all bankrupt (unlikely with receipts at record levels) or some big company like Apple tricks or talks them into it.
Here is what I was thinking. There are a fair number of movies that are not being served by the DVD market. Either they are not going to sell enough to justify the cost to press, or will not move enough in the stores to justify the space, or are older content and not even worth the cost to remaaster. However, a 3-4 terabyte server for each store, along with several burning stations, is not incredible costly, or space consuming and would hold maybe 1000 movies. Other content could be downloaded on demand. This would allow increased sales in stores, and increased profit, especially on old libraries.
For this the studios would have to play nice. Since there is little cost to produce these, or the cost of keeping stock, they need to keep the prices down to $10. Again, the burning kiosk should not be for movies that do well on DVD, but to push the back library. Second, no unskippable conent. I just bought another CD with 10 minutes of previews that I could not skip. It realy made me wonder why I did not just download the damn thing.
I am sure the major studios will screw this up just as they have the digital projector. Anything like this lossens their grip on distribution, and further weakens their market share. If done right, it will allow the studio a cost effective way to push content and compete with the majors. I am sure this will not be allowed.
"She's a scientist and a lesbian. She's not going to let it slide." Orphan Black
Imagining coming to Wal-mart and burning Zabriskie Point for $14.99...
Yeah, right...
I do not believe in karma. "Funny"=-6. Do good and forbid evil. Yours, Oft-Offtopic Flamebaiting Troll.
Here's the thing though: worse movies don't sell either.We can tell this, because they've been trying it for a decade now, and all we hear about is the MPAA moaning about falling attendances and DVD sales.
Do you not think you mey be confusing "better" with here "pretentious and inaccesable and aggressively anti-populist"?
Don't let THEM immanentize the Eschaton!
Hollywood's movie distribution system is in dire need of a fix.
Actually -- it's not. Unless you have no retailer and no internet access to purchase DVD's, the distribution system works.
Movie attendance has been suffering.
If you're a single person going to a theatre spending US$8.50 for entry, $4.00 for a medium drink, $5.00 for a box of candy or nachos, one person might be able to handle it. Now, imagine being a family of four and doing all that?
In all though, I perceive no apparent problem with attendance. I saw MI:3 in Raleigh, NC yesterday and the theatre was full. I watched both DaVinci Code and X-Men:3 last weekend in St. Louis, MO and the seats were full there as well.
DVD sales are slumping.
I like movies. No, I LOVE movies. I've got nearly 400 DVD's in my collection that I'm slowly starting to sell because of HD-DVD disks already being sold here in North Carolina for the price of about US$30.00.
I've bought, sold, replaced, sold, and replaced so many titles in my collection that I'd begun to give up.
It's the studio's problem that they rush discs to market just a couple months after a films release and then a year later offer the "extended, uncut super-freakout end-all be all version". Then a year after that they release the same disk but some action figure, or bonus disc or Oscar edition.
THEY dilluted the market. They had people like me willing to invest hard-earned cash into building a "respectable" movie collection (amongst officianados) and pissed it away.
If they really want to change things, release the "movie-only" version through the cable companies. Offer a set-top box that has a smart card linked to an account that registers customer purchases and allows people to OWN ACCESS TO THE CONTENT WITHOUT HAVING TO PURCHASE A PHYSICAL ITEM.
A person should then be able to LEND his smart card to a friend or take it with him to another customer's house and watch the same LICENSED film if he chooses.
Two people cannot watch the same purchase simultaneously in two different locations, and the studios will be able to obtain metrics on who's watching what and WHERE.
But for the real FANS OF FILM offer the super-freakout edition in the stores or for online purchase. Stop fucking it up for us. You're double-dipping. You're cheating us.
For those of us who BUY physical products give us a central registry so that we can be afforded REPLACEMENT of our discs when things go awry. We send in the old-dead disc, you send us back a shiny new one.
I think that for $30.00 per title you can do this with little effort.
"Movie attendance has been suffering, DVD sales are slumping..."
I thought movie attendance had actually picked up this year over last. Maybe not a huge increase, but it's not "suffering" --- and DVD sales are not slumping. Their rate of increase has been slowing down, but that's a measure of acceleration, not speed or distance.
Small potatoes make the steak look bigger.
None of the digital movie download services I know of lets the user download the movie and then burn it to DVD. Apparently this has to do with CSS and burnable DVDs (you can't encrypt or encrypt properly burned DVDs). The last I heard of this was that there was work on a new version of CSS that would let you burn DVDs yourself, but that there might be compatibility issues with older DVD players. [In the meantime the porn industry chose its own encryption format which apparently works with existing players.]
Does this kiosk development mean that the new version of CSS is ready? If so DVD burning could be available for online digital download services as well. As I see it they're held back by the simple fact that connecting a computer to a TV is not as easy as putting a DVD into the player.
The people who amass movies are long time movie enthusiasts. You don't sound like one.
The people who amass music are long time music enthusiasts. You don't sound like one. I have absolutely tons of CDs and I reguarly 'dust off' old CDs. And CD expiry, to an extent is a myth which has never really been tested fully. My dad has CDs from when CDs were first released (early 1980) which still work as well as new, and I have some CDrs from 10 years ago which still work as new.
Long Tail. I want the Doc Savage movie. Done. I want some esoteric documentary? Done.
Not that it'll be used for that, but the potential is there.
"Sometimes a woman is a kind of religion, she can save your soul & set you free from all your sins" - Bad Examples
I said there's too many movies out now, not interested in seeing them all right away. The 5 number I meant 5 dollars for a new disk hits my maximum of what I might pay for one, not 5 movies a weekend. Sorry for the confusion. I maybe watch a dozen or so movies a year now at the most. I have some I picked up more than a year ago I haven't even watched yet in fact.
What about DRM? If they burn these on regular disks, I can make a copy. If they burn it on special disks, these disks will get even more expensive.
I suspect they'll do something similar to what Movielinks is doing - give you a DRM'ed file. That's fine, but if I can play it on any computer/DVD player, I still can copy it! And if I have to link it to a specific computer with a license, why would I want it in the first place?!
Sigh. I just don't understand the point of this.
m
It's just the recordable ones that expire, because the patterns are formed by an organic ink which degrades with time (and which some bacteria like to snack on). Store-bought CDs have physical pits in them which will not go away short of mechanical damage.
> Can I shout "fire!" in a movie burning kiosk?
:]
Of course! I mean, it *is* burning!
While you're at it, think you can help round up the last few copies of Gigli and Battlefield Earth for incineration? Or do they not allow for hazardous waste disposal?
I read that headline and pictured kiosks that are used to incinerate DVDs using fire. I figured it was just another brick in the neocon megachurch wall that they are building around sanity in this country. Every time I'm outside I'm reminded of just how dumb most Americans are. Better stay home and spend more time on the computer... ;P
(NOTE: The above is humorous. If you don't get it, then you have my sympathies for your loss.)
-"...bad old ideas look confusingly fresh when they are packaged as technology" - Jaron Lanier (Digital Maoism on Edge.o
piracy is what happens on the streets in china, russia, south america and eastern europe.
dowloading is not a crime.
uploading is a crime.
arrest the uploaders.
They're using their grammar skills there.
For this is the beginning of the end of the MPAA/RIAA.
Think about it. They are giving in, even if it's only a little. Inch by inch, they will eventually be forced to realize that switching to a non-centralized online distribution format will make them more money.
No, not as much money as they once made per film, but more money TODAY, than they would otherwise lose to online piracy (which often is caused by users not having the choice to buy online cheaply). Need proof? Just look at what iTunes did for the music industry.
eTrade SUCKS
All you really need is a blowtorch, a fume cupboard and a stack of crap movies.
Now theres a movie burning booth people would queue up for!
In the free world the media isn't government run; the government is media run.
I actually do listen to all my music. I don't have nearly that much, but no matter how much music I gather, I throw it all into a random playlist, and eventually delete the old ones I really don't want to listen to.
However, the problem with your scheme for movies is that the mechanism for "play once" would be "play once the way I want to". I want to be able to download a movie, keep it around for a few days, play it with whatever program I want, then delete it. As you said, most people don't want to have massive collections of movies, and thus I doubt they'd be losing much by simply selling a download-once movie for $2.50. If you have to delete it, oh well, you'll have to pay them again to download it, which is fair, you're wasting bandwidth. But if you want to keep it, they should give up the idea of forcing you to then pay $25 for the DVD, and they should furthermore give up the idea of trying to prevent piracy at all. Piracy costs them nothing in a scheme like that, and sharing with friends is fine, although really, two friends would probably each buy it.
I know I bought a nice little game called Tube Twist, and my roommate bought it also. Why? Because trying to crack it was too hard compared to the relatively cheap cost, and that we actually wanted to support them, and the fact that it really was less bother to buy it than to crack it. We ended up pirating games like Path of Neo and Beyond Good & Evil, because we couldn't easily find a way to buy them over the Internet, and we'd have ended up cracking them anyway, so that we could file away the CDs.
Don't thank God, thank a doctor!
But then I realized that I never usually watch the movie more then once so I'd rather rent the movie and hopefully watch it. Though I have a nice DVD movie collection though, including all 6 Star Wars movies. I was planning to collect all the Star Trek movies onto DVD eventually, but what's the point, I rarely watch the Star Trek movies I bought on VHS tape as is.
"...and a scant handful of simultaneous releases."
More like 'a scat handful of simultaneous releases' --seriously. The crap they are releasing is the only reason that attendance is suffering.
If they want to make money off crappy movies, give them away for free. If some turkey likes "Fantastic Four" enough, he can buy a DVD at max quality. Nick Cage as Ghostrider? I want to cry. Starting to see a pattern emerge, now?
Don't even get me started about Lucas. He's trying to squeeze your last dollars with the 'new' DVD-release of the original trilogy. Most of the good stuff seems to be on TV, lately. But I still refuse to pay for 150 channels of crap when all I want is a couple. So, it would seem that neither industry can get their vision of future commerce to gain wide acceptance. Too bad they get little to none of my money as a result.
No sig for you! Come back one year!
On-Demand downloads weren't very practical - but pre-loading movies as they're released works quite well, especially since that's what you're most likely to sell. A 1 Mbps network connection lets you download 75 GB a week, which is about 15 movies, depending on resolution, 2-disk-sets, etc. Hollywood seldom produces more than 10 movies a week, and Bollywood's pretty similar. (The pr0n industry produces a lot more.) So if you've got a cable modem or decent DSL connection, you can keep ahead of the mainstream movies and have some bandwidth available for CD-quality ad-hoc downloads. Network availability can be a problem - the obvious place to put DVD burner kiosks is in malls, but they often don't have cable, and they're usually far away from telco offices so DSL bandwidth is lower. On the other hand, grocery stores are usually in/near residential neighborhoods, so they've usually got cable nearby and often have decent DSL.
Bill Stewart
New Fast-Compression-only CPR http://preview.tinyurl.com/dy575ks
I can't wait until some of these things start getting hacked.
If you want me to come to the movie theater, make it a real experience, like watching a play or going to see Rocky Horror at midnight.
For the opening day, have an real live host introduce the movie. Follow up with outtakes, a "making of," and even a discussion of key elements of the movie, such as the special effects. Heck, even get a star or behind-the-scenes person to do a live or remote- discussion of the movie.
After opening weekend, be creative. For children's movies have a live puppet show or something beforehand. For action films give out discount coupons to the local amusement park. For dramas give coupons to the local high-end-bookstore chain or have an author-signing of some book related to the movie. You get the idea.
And for ghod's sakes cut the cost of concessions or at least let me bring my popcorn.
Otherwise, I'll just rent/buy/bootleg the DVD and watch it on my home theater* thank-you-very-much.
*home theater consists of a 20-year-old mono-sound analog tv set with distorted color with single aluminum-foil-encased antenna
Knowledge is how to play a game, intelligence is how to win, wisdom is knowing what game to play.
The reason movie ticket sales and DVD sales have been slumping lately is because Hollywood has been turning out a load of crap movies for years. This stuff has been so bad that for the most part it isn't even worth the energy of getting in the car to go someplace to watch or buy it .... please. The last movie I paid to watch was X Men 3. This is a movie I was was very excited to see. The movie was ok (read so-so) but they killed the ending so badly that I felt like asking for the money and the time from my life back when it was over!!! ... Here's a message to Hollywood studios .... IF YOU WANT YOUR SALES FIGURES UP STOP TURNING OUT CRAP MOVIES AND KILLING THE GOOD ONES AND BUSINESS WILL GET BETTER!!!!!
I've felt for a long time that the industry (as usual) was being shortsighted.
They know that movie theater goers watch movies, buy DVDs and rent movies.
The time between theatrical release and DVD release is dropping (it is now under 4 months in many cases,) and the natural market is the theater goers.
A properly made theatrical release is like the Greatful Dead, and experiance which is not duplicated on DVD.
So why not offer theater tickets which optionally come with a DVD release? If the movie is properly made for the theater, people will still come for the experiance, and each DVD sent out acts as an ad for the release while it is still in the theater.
Or does that make too much sense?
We can get all those old Gigli DVD's incinerated! We can then start on the video oeuvre of Meryll Streep! I hope they burn in an enviromentally sound manner.
That is all.
... book burning kiosks.
If Hollywood would get back to producing good movies there would be little need for such kiosks. (I take that back, they could be useful in getting a movie to the public quick) However, lately I have seen a bunch of mindless crap come from the box office that I wouldn't waste even a dollar to see, much less spend up to twenty dollars to buy.
From TFA:
DVD sales are slumping
Besides the crapfest that has been the movie industry lately, wouldn't this also be caused by people holding off on purchases since they know another format is just around the corner?
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