Would you like to watch Fantastic Beasts, Moana, Doctor Strange, or Arrival in the comfort of your own home right now?
Those four major movies hit theaters within the past month, so unfortunately you can’t watch ’em on your couch. But in the not-too-distant future, new releases may be available through a digital store like Apple’s iTunes only two weeks after they open in cinemas.
Bloomberg has spoken to Hollywood sources who’ve revealed that 21st Century Fox, Warner Brothers, and Universal have all been looking into putting movies in homes “shortly after they open in theaters.” Some executives want the time frame to be “as early as two weeks after theatrical debuts.”
Apple has recently been in talks with these studios to come up with a plan.
“One option is a premium-priced online rental for new movies, at prices of $25 to $50, a possibility under consideration at the studios,” according to Bloomberg, but one concern about iTunes “is whether it will be a secure platform for delivering movies that are still in theaters.”
Pirating could potentially be a major issue — recording a new movie and then releasing it on YouTube, Periscope, etc. could be as easy as putting your iPhone in front of your TV. One potential solution is watermarking the movies, which would then reveal who is responsible for filming it.
Apple could potentially benefit by being the only company who could sell you new movies. This would, in turn, help drive sales of Apple TV, iPhone, iPad, etc. And movie studios would benefit by selling films to people who wouldn’t go to the theater to see the movie otherwise.
The only losers here are movie theaters, who’ve already pushed back against such ideas earlier this year.
Still, studios need to do something — Bloomberg notes “cinema attendance [is] mostly stagnant and home-video revenue [have been] flat in recent years.”
Would you shell out $25 – $50 to watch a movie in your home so soon after it opens in theaters?
If two people were watching the movie at home, it’d cost roughly just as much as going out to the theater.
Source: Bloomberg
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