Peter Jackson and JJ Abrams 'Back' Sean Parker's Screening Room (variety.com)
An anonymous reader writes: Reports claim that Napster founder, Sean Parker, is working on a new service, called Screening Room, which would make major blockbusters available at home on the same day as they hit cinemas. The service would apparently charge users $50 per movie, and provide them with a 48-hour window to watch it. Now a new report claims that Hollywood titans Peter Jackson, Steven Spielberg and JJ Abrams are among backers of Screening Room.
A fool and his money soon parted.
I have a 4K HDR Dolby Atmos dedicated theater in my basement. Sure a 100 foot screen is great and all, but I have better sound and video on my 133" screen than any theater within a 18 hour drive. I would gladly pay that fee, it would be cheaper than me and my wife going because of the cost of a sitter.
It's about what it costs to see it in a theater in many places, when you factor in "practicality". About $20 for tickets, then another $20 for overpriced snacks. Add another $8 or so if it's "3D".
Still, I'd wait for it to come out cheaper elsewhere unless I hear the movie is exceptionally good from trustworthy sources (not paid for critics).
Why? Because it's not how you like to spend your dollars?
My wife and I could easily have another couple over and this becomes $12.50 per person, which is below the price of good tickets in my city, before factoring in any supplemental costs. Even if I just watch it with my wife, $25/person isn't particularly outrageous for entertainment - especially since it's only another option in long list of entertainment viewing choices. Sometimes, I just want to stay home, order a pizza, maybe put a few drinks in me and not worry about a taxi, and watch a movie. I imagine Deadpool would have been a good candidate for this service - especially if I can pause and rewind.
Despite the fact that Safeway has rib roasts for $5.77/lb, lots of people still prefer to have people prepare them and serve them to them for $20-50/lb. And, by the same token, despite the fact that I can get good pulled pork with little to no effort at a reasonable price from the nice place up the street, sometimes I like to spend an entire weekend smoking my own pork shoulder, despite the fact that it's not an "efficient" use of my time.
It's not "stupid" when people place different values on their time and comfort than you do.
Your point? Watching a movie in the cinema is not the same as watching a movie at home, even though in both places you get a "movie".
No, it's worse. Not starting at the scheduled time so they can show you adverts, noisy people, no pausing to go to the toilet, expensive (and non-alcoholic) drinks.. I really don't see the point in the cinema any more - is there anything *so* good you can't wait six months?
Some people were taught right from wrong by their parents and have some moral integrity. I know it's a crazy idea, but just because you think it's okay to steal doesn't mean everyone else does. I would guess that most of us did some morally questionable things when we were younger. Most of us have matured enough to realize that we should not be proud of those things and brag about them by the time we graduate from college though.
Cue the "it's not stealing if nothing gets taken" crowd. I'll go ahead and preemptively respond to that, too.
There are different types of theft but at the simplest level theft is taking something that is not yours without permission from the owner/creator. Note that "something" can be a physical item, a valuable idea, an identity, a service, etc.
If you go to buy a car and think the dealer's asking price is too high, do you come back after they close for the day and steal it? The cable TV company spent the money and did the work necessary to provide the infrastructure so they could offer a service. They set a price for this service based on what they thought it was worth. If you thought their asking price was more than the service was worth, you should have done without rather than stealing it.
You know what, if you go to the car dealer and think that car price is to high and you come back latter than night and make a copy with you own machine and supplies, well, you know what, that's fan-fucking-tastics, and woo hoo, you are to be celebrated and congratulated. Gees, think about, don't like the price of a big mack and can make an instant copies to feed yourself as well as the rest of the planet, you would be celebrated no matter how much maccas would want to fuck you up.
Dude, copying ain't stealing. In fact the only actually stealing that occurs is when the pigopolists with the backing of government storm troopers turn up to your door and actually steal and destroy the stuff you made with your equipment on your supplies, they also steal the equipment and suppliers and even your own self. The other big time actual stealing that is occurring is of course big time fraudulent DMCA claims where pigoplists do actually steal content that other people have produced by the pigopolists claiming it as their own.
Now here is a tricky one, did the cable companies steal quality of life from it's users by maliciously and disingenuously promoting unhealthy and socially destructive practices and should they be prosecuted for the harm and suffering they have purposefully caused, that harm being the theft of years of a persons life.
Chaos - everything, everywhere, everywhen