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Movie Studio Finally Sees the Light On Rentals

Posted by Soulskill on from the turns-out-wishful-thinking-is-a-bad-business-model dept.

Griller_GT writes "After months of conducting studies about the effects of delays on sales of DVDs, 'Paramount Pictures has agreed to provide its movies to Redbox on the same day they go on sale.' A Paramount exec said, 'Those people who want to rent are going to figure out ways to rent, and us restricting them from renting isn't going to turn it into a purchase.' Gee, who would have thought of that?" Reader DisKurzion sends in news of another movie business experiment underway by an Australian company called Distracted Media. They are raising funds for a movie called The Tunnel by letting people invest in individual frames for $1 apiece. When the movie is complete, it will be released for free on torrent sites.

4 of 213 comments (clear)

  1. "Unthinkable", another weird movie studio story by sammyF70 · · Score: 5, Interesting

    funny how stories tend to come in packs. The Movie "Unthinkable" was ranked #3 at IMDB prior to the release of the DVD/BR (it was a straight to video release). The producer ended up asking on the IMDB forums the people who had rated it where they got it from and about ideas on how to make things fairer for both sides.
    As someone who saw it ~early~ too, I can only urge you to watch it (if possible through a legal rental or by buying the DVD or BR ... it IS worth it), as it is a really interesting movie.
    I wonder whether this and TFS are linked somehow.

    --
    "DRM is like the Ford Pinto: it's a smooth ride, right up the point at which it explodes and ruins your day."-C.Doctorow
  2. I work for a video rental store by Supurcell · · Score: 4, Interesting

    In the last couple years, there have been a ton of retail exclusives. There are a few distributors who won't sell us movies that have some bogus exclusivity, but you know who will? Best Buy. We just buy em there, and rent em out just like anything else. The only thing we can't effectively get a large quantity of are the Netflix exclusives, but those are usually more obscure movies(which my store specializes in).

    What I really hate are the "Rental Exclusive" editions of movies which have long, unskipable previews before the movie.

  3. Re:Something seems off by 0100010001010011 · · Score: 5, Interesting

    One of my favorite movies, The Man from Earth cost $200,000.

    It had 0 CGI, no big name actors but a kick ass story from Jerome Bixby.

    Paranormal Activity was made for $15k and grossed $9M the first weekend.

  4. Big Rental Release by RichMan · · Score: 4, Interesting

    The bigger the rental release the more copies the rental places need to have to meet the surge. If the surge is dampened because of earlier sales and less hype because of the mixed release dates then the rental places have to buy less to meet the peak opening demand.

    So releasing into both markets at the same time is likely to lead to more sales into the rental market.