Prices aren't obvious. Movies are a good example of this. >Surprisingly, during the court battles over the legality of the VCR, the studios began selling their

Prices aren't obvious. Movies are a good example of this. >Surprisingly, during the court battles over the legality of the VCR, the studios began selling their movies on Betamax and VHS—to play on the very devices they were trying to outlaw. Trying to have it both ways, they began selling movies on video cassettes for retail prices up to $100). In 1977, Twentieth Century Fox was the first when they released Patton and MAS*H, which had been in theaters seven years prior, and The Sound of Music, which had its theatrical release in 1965. The first movies on videocassette weren't exactly new releases. Given a family of four could watch a movie at the theater for about $15 in 1977, $100 for a videocassette of the same movie seemed outlandishly expensive. But from the studios' perspective, that was a fair price to own a movie versus the lower price to rent a seat in a theater to watch it. The price Fox set for these first releases became the standard for the industry.