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Hollywood Is Fighting Billionaire Sean Parker's Plan To Let You Rent Movies Still in Theaters For $50 (businessinsider.com)
Billionaire Sean Parker's plans to bring movies to your home as soon as they release in theatres has hit new roadblocks. After receiving praises for "Screening Room" from directors and producers Steven Spielberg, Ron Howard, J.J. Abrams, and Peter Jackson, as well as Hollywood studios, the buzz for the startup has started to wane. From a report: Though Parker and cofounder Prem Akkaraju have promoted the company in the last two years at CinemaCon, it's gotten little traction due to a naivete of the industry, competitors, and studios' and theater chains' decade-long discussion about how to move forward on Premium VOD (PVOD) (alternative source), Business Insider has learned. "Everything you've heard in the press about studios and theaters wanting to explore a PVOD window, nothing about that revolves around Screening Room," a source close to the talks told Business Insider. Screening Room's main pitch to studios and exhibitors has been that it can bring added revenue to all sides of the equation. Out of the proposed $50 rental fee, 20% would go to the movie's distributor, and a participating theater chain would get up to $20 of the fee, plus each customer receives two tickets to see that rented title at their local theater. Screening Room would take 10% of each fee. Sources told Business Insider that all of the bells and whistles Screening Room is selling don't matter until the studios and theaters can agree on a Premium VOD (or PVOD) window. Industry players don't want movies to be available on PVOD simultaneously with theatrical release dates because the first two weeks of a theatrical run are still when studios and exhibitors get a majority of a movie's income. Also read: Sean Parker Is Going To Great Lengths To Ensure 'Screening Room' Is Piracy Free, Patents Reveal.
At that cost I'd just go to the theatre, or better yet just skip the movie altogether.
errr....umm...*whooosh* *whoosh* Is this thing on ?
drop the two tickets / price part!
also cable / sat system want to be able to sell VOD / PPV at the same time as well They may want to sell them for $20-$30 a pop with them taking there cut.
participating theater chain I have over 4+ of them in my local area so what one will get it?
How about everyone's plan?? -with the exception of certain figures in Hollywood...
FFS why are we held hostage to middlemen, distribution "media companies" and the like. If I want to pay a premium for watching movies in the comfort of my home why is this not provided?
This eventual culmination was a foregone conclusion. Just some greedy fuckers gasping their last breath to stay in the loop before we bump them out of the chain.
...and another thing it's ABOUT FUCKING TIME THIS HAPPENS.
A 'singular oddity' is an event that cannot be explained and only happens when you are alone.
The studios would make a ton more money if they just let people rent it at home for $20 without involving any other company except the online streaming company.
Opening weekend of new kid's movie, under existing system. Family of four:
Tickets: At least $40
Popcorn and concessions: At least $30
Opening weekend of new kid's movie, under "Screening Room." Family of four:
Theater cut: $20
SJW: Someone who has run out of real oppression, and has to fake it.
Why is the physical theater getting a cut? I would reject it on this principle alone. There is no reason to give the physical theater anything at all (other than they want their customers to pay for Parker's failure to negotiate a proper deal.) It is obvious that they have to give the theaters something and the tickets are the bone they threw back. Its like having a tax on cars to assuage buggy whip makers that it will all be ok.
Good-bye
I am too disabled to go to the cinema and $50 is too much for someone on welfare to waste on a single film. Holywood is basically letting down their disabled fans by not allowing reasonably priced films at home without having to wait. This forces people to illegally watch CAMs of films.
fight change, even if it means we will lose money in the long run. Instead of embracing change (streaming) and making a lot more money, but we can't see that because this is all new and frightening and we have can't deal with the very minuscule possibility this might lose money instead of what will really happen and make tons more money.
NOBODY (well maybe 0.01% of people) want to go to the fucking theater. Most of them suck ass and you have to deal with low level inbred assholes who want to watch their phones instead of the movie. Theaters are outrageously expensive, not from the movie ticket aspect, but you could easily spend an extra $30 on drinks and crap for a family of 4.
The movie theater, unless shit changes drastically, is dead. The industry just can't see it yet, but in 30 years going to a movie theater will be as popular as a drive-in is today.
I already covered all this in the previous story on this subject.
1980s to 1990s - transition period, with the first blockbuster console games without a corresponding arcade release (Super Mario Bros).
2000s and 2010s - all games are now released directly to console or PC. Ask a kid if they want to go to the arcade, and they'll reply "What's an arcade?"
Times change. Except for live events like concerts or sports, where being part of the crowd is part of the experience, people prefer viewing their entertainment at home. Movie theaters are not a necessity, they were just a way to amortize the high cost of the projection and sound system across all viewers. As the cost of big screen TVs, projectors, and home theater sound systems continues to go down, movie theaters are going to become a relic of the past, just like arcades. The benefits I've seen from watching movies on my projector and HTS are:
Since studios/distributor's get nearly 100% of the ticket fee in opening weeks now, doesn't sound like they have much to gain participating in this. Especially if more than 1 person watches the movie.
No they aren't. This is exactly the kind of thing Hollywood desperately needs as we avoid movie theaters like the plague.
What $50 for a home watch is...is lunacy. Myopic, steering by the wake, lunacy.
Its got Hollywood written all over it.
The stream could be chock-full of watermarks and hidden data which would identify the account to which that video was streamed.
I bet someone would find a way around this and make any DRM/watermarks useless. Every time something comes out that is supposed to be 'hackerproof', someone finds a way to break into it in just a few days or less.
My guess would be a split based on where the "free" tickets are redeemed.
If a film is any good, then it'll still be good to watch when it comes out on Bluray or via your favorite streaming service.
What do you get for your $50?
Nothing but bragging rights about seeing a film before your friends and coworkers have.
You mean movie producers won't hand Shawn Parker 10% of the gross for doing nothing? Surprising.
This is about keeping the wealthy from renting that movie and watching it in their home theaters instead of having to mingle with the uwashed masses at a theater.
I predict the wealthy will win. They usually do. That's why they are the wealthy.
Why doesn't Hollywood focus on putting out a better product then worrying about it's distribution methods. While big movies still make a large amount of money the quality of most films is just not there. I will happily spend money on entertainment I find enjoyable, whether it be music, movies or TV. I would go to the theater or rent a movie for $50 that sucks anyway.
Sent from my TARDIS
"The wealthy" spend way more than $50 on a night's entertainment, and as far as they're concerned the ones who might use this product are the unwashed masses.
I'd rather be able to rent a small theatre to view older movies with some friends.
I would never rent a movie for 50$, I would have to be an idiot.
Solid business model because the whole is full of idiots.
Dear Hollywood,
The status quo is fine for me. I'll keep bootlegging movies and paying you nothing.
Regards,
Movie Fan/RIAA Hater
The points about Movie theaters being a relic of the past are mostly on point, but when you have lots or real estate and anchor properties that make or break traffic to a particular mall or shopping center, don't think theater owners an property magnates are just going to be like yeah Hollywood sure release them at home too.. its really all about entrenched business interests, the same logic applies to all the other windowing of content releases, theaters -> planes/ships -> overseas --> dvd etc..
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What about the cost of maintaining servers that are going to get bombarded on every single major release date? That can't be cheap. Customer satisfaction is going to be terrible when that server crashes too. You can bet that the motion picture companies are not going to be thrilled about giving out refunds to irate customers. They'd probably have to hire call centers full of staff just to handle the complaints and refunds. At least that's good for the economy, right?
You may have missed the point: the tickets are not there for the customer, they're there for the theater chain. This company is trying to do something that the entire film industry hates, so in order to make that happen it needs to get all of the members of the industry on board. That means cutting in the movie theaters, even though they're contributing nothing to this.
The tickets are there so that everyone can pretend that the theaters are a relevant part of this deal, and possibly for legal reasons. It wouldn't surprise me if there were laws against that sort of thing.
Movies are already available for online streaming while they are still at theaters, if not before. All this scheme would change is that Hollywood would be able to capture some portion of revenue from the online market.
But revenue is not important to Hollywood accountants (if they increase revenue, they might end up making enough from the movie to have to pay the actors). All they want is to whine about how the internet is taking away their revenue.
what about not taking 99% of the movie theaters gate? so they can have good food prices and fix BS like them needing to pay for an music licensing to cover music in the movies.
For arcades we had / have
the mail ones (In the past some ticket no or ticket games) maybe 1-2 of the big driving games / pinball level varys (Now days more ticket stuff)
Chuck E. Cheese (mainly kids party's) and lot's of ticket stuff. Maybe some pinball.
bowling places very some have small game rooms / some have good sized Billiards area / some have a big ticket game area.
Gameworks like places still kids geared but also has an sports bar vibe and big games / big banks of linked driving games some places are 21 only after 9-11PM very maybe 50 / 50 ticket non ticket does not give dam about pinball if they have them they are not getting fixed much lots of other non ticket games as well.
main event Gameworks like but they have big bowling set ups / Laser Tag (basic) / Gravity Ropes / Mini Golf and ticket games.
family fun centers mostly local businesses / small chains that are mix all of the above
laser tag places have small game rooms some have ticket games. The local non chains places have lot's of fun laser tag games.
Dave and busters like places more adult themed game works and more sticker on letting kids in little to no pinball.
Bars with a few pinball / darts / golf games / pool tables. Some have good pinball. It can very from kids ok it's your local small bar where it's not for kids.
Barcade places just about no ticket stuff lots of older classic games and new pinball's most are mainly 21 and up (mainly do to big city laws)
Can't you just wait a few months to see them instead? What sane person goes to the cinema nowadays anyway? What sane person would pay $50 to see the latest Jew-created sickfest that is called a 'movie' nowadays?