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Why delay it at all? Frankly they shouldn't care how we want to watch a film, just that we want to and are willing to pay for it. I like films but have small k

Why delay it at all? Frankly they shouldn't care how we want to watch a film, just that we want to and are willing to pay for it. I like films but have small kids so I can't get to the cinema as often as I'd like. By not letting me give them money to watch their film (and I won't pirate it, I'll just do something else) they're throwing money away. Get me while the publicity and hype are out there, when I can discuss it with friends and colleagues. By the time it's out on DVD the moment could well have passed and my money has gone. The cinema done right is a great experience and personally I don't think it's going anywhere. It doesn't matter how big my TV gets, I'll never have that social experience, the fact of getting out of the house where the phone won't ring and the door won't go, where I won't be tempted to pick up the iPad or whatever. Watching at home, if done right, is a complementary market as much as it is a competitive one. And if it is competitive one then hey, what do they care if they're charging for it? It's not going to be $5, probably more like $20 (think a couple of people, a couple of tickets equivalent, perhaps figure in the fact they can't upsell you popcorn and subtract some lower costs), but so long as the price seems fair next to the multiplex cost I'm fine with it.

swombat 14y ago
Why delay it at all? Frankly they shouldn't care how we want to watch a film, just that we want to and are willing to pay for it. If you watch the latest blockbuster on the day of release at home on your mega projector that you bought with all the money you saved by not going to the cinema, with your wife, your three kids, and your neighbours (5 more people), you pay for just one stream/ticket. If all those people go to the cinema, they pay for 10 tickets. That's a good rationale for why they care, imho.
- Tyrannosaurs 14y ago
  A few people will do this but most won't. The fact a few people game a system rarely stops a business model. It doesn't have to work in every specific instance, just overall.
  - swombat 14y ago
    Actually I think most would - perhaps not at a 10x multiple, but at least 2-3x, maybe 5x. If I were to download a brand new movie that just came out today I would definitely watch it with at least my girlfriend, but possibly invite a few friends around for a movie night. Or some friends would invite me (I hope!). I would end up watching a lot more movies, but providing much less income to the movie industry for each.
    - Tyrannosaurs 14y ago
      As I said in the original post, you wouldn't charge at a single ticket rate, you'd price it based on what worked. My assumption would be that most people would watch with maybe one other person and that the price would reflect that. As I also said they lose the ability to up sell you highly profitable popcorn, you lose travel costs, the lose some overheads (but gain others) - there are a whole bunch of things to figure in. The release day cost of a movie rental wouldn't be a single cinema ticket price and it certainly wouldn't be a current rental cost. Off the top of my head I think you'd be looking somewhere around two to three times average cinema ticket prices, possibly varying by time (weekend evenings might cost more). The last sentence is a good thing for them though not a bad one. If you watch 3 movies a week instead of one and pay on average $5 instead of $10, they've still got $15 instead of $10. Their costs will likely only be marginally higher with three movies vs. one (most of it being the infrastructure) which means that their overall profit is likely up. You don't optimise a business for revenue, you optimise it for profit.

swombat 14y ago

Why delay it at all? Frankly they shouldn't care how we want to watch a film, just that we want to and are willing to pay for it. If you watch the latest blockbuster on the day of release at home on your mega projector that you bought with all the money you saved by not going to the cinema, with your wife, your three kids, and your neighbours (5 more people), you pay for just one stream/ticket. If all those people go to the cinema, they pay for 10 tickets. That's a good rationale for why they care, imho.

Tyrannosaurs 14y ago
A few people will do this but most won't. The fact a few people game a system rarely stops a business model. It doesn't have to work in every specific instance, just overall.
- swombat 14y ago
  Actually I think most would - perhaps not at a 10x multiple, but at least 2-3x, maybe 5x. If I were to download a brand new movie that just came out today I would definitely watch it with at least my girlfriend, but possibly invite a few friends around for a movie night. Or some friends would invite me (I hope!). I would end up watching a lot more movies, but providing much less income to the movie industry for each.
  - Tyrannosaurs 14y ago
    As I said in the original post, you wouldn't charge at a single ticket rate, you'd price it based on what worked. My assumption would be that most people would watch with maybe one other person and that the price would reflect that. As I also said they lose the ability to up sell you highly profitable popcorn, you lose travel costs, the lose some overheads (but gain others) - there are a whole bunch of things to figure in. The release day cost of a movie rental wouldn't be a single cinema ticket price and it certainly wouldn't be a current rental cost. Off the top of my head I think you'd be looking somewhere around two to three times average cinema ticket prices, possibly varying by time (weekend evenings might cost more). The last sentence is a good thing for them though not a bad one. If you watch 3 movies a week instead of one and pay on average $5 instead of $10, they've still got $15 instead of $10. Their costs will likely only be marginally higher with three movies vs. one (most of it being the infrastructure) which means that their overall profit is likely up. You don't optimise a business for revenue, you optimise it for profit.